TaxTMI 
TaxTMI 
2026 (9) TMI 1946
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....o were arrayed as respondents 1, 2, 4 and 5 in the writ petition, against the order dated 11.09.2020 passed by the learned single Judge of this Court in W.P.(MD) No. 3489 of 2020. 2.The original writ petitioner is the first respondent and the Commissioner of Customs, who is the third respondent before the Writ Court, is the second respondent in this writ appeal. 3.For brevity and convenience, the parties are referred to as they stood before the writ Court. 4.The admitted facts in the present case are as follows:- i) The writ petitioner is having a manufacturing facility at SIPCOT, Special Economic Zone (SEZ), Gangaikondan, Thirunelveli. The writ petitioner is engaged in the manufacture and export of tyres to various countr....
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....olumn as 'Y' against at least against one export item to proceed further, as the shipping bills were signed online in the SEZ system. Thus, the writ petitioner claims that they were in the habit of selecting 'Y' against only the first item of the shipping bill in order to complete the shipping process. vi) The Director General of Foreign Trade issued a public notice bearing No.51/2018-19 dated 29.03.219, under which online filing, processing and the system based approval of MEIS application was extended to SEZ (Special Economic Zone) shipping bills with effect from 08.04.2019. vii) Since 08.04.2019, when the writ petitioner filed the subject 2925 shipping bills, which contained several entries and where und....
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.... the writ petition and permitted the writ petitioner to make a formal request to the third respondent, namely, the Commissioner of Customs, Thoothukudi, who, in turn, was directed to issue a 'No Objection Certificate' enabling the writ petitioner to avail the benefit and also directed the third respondent to instruct NSDL (National Securities Depository Limited) to transmit all the relevant materials to the Development Commissioner, MEPZ, Tambaram, Chennai and the said officer was also directed to consider the claim of the writ petitioner and pass appropriate orders as expeditiously as possible. Challenging the same, the present writ appeal. 5.The learned Additional Solicitor General appearing for the appellants would submit that....
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....t that there was a change in the procedure adopted in the manner of filing of shipping bills, for which the exporter was claiming benefits under MEIS. The writ petitioner has brought huge foreign exchange revenue to the country and they have been regularly doing the same export business of the same item of products for a very long time and the change in procedure had led to this minor lapse on the part of the exporter, which cannot lead to a penalization of the writ petitioner by denying the benefits of the scheme. 9. He would argue that no other lapse had been pointed out against the writ petitioner by the official respondents; the Commissioner of Customs had not filed any appeal against the order of the learned single Judge and they ha....
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....it appeal. 13.In a very recent judgment, the Hon'ble Apex Court in the case of Shah Nanji Nagsi Exports Private Limited Vs. Union of India reported in (2025) 33 Centax 360 (S.C), it is held that "once the exports are genuine and they fall under the notified category, the inadvertent mistakes of procedure cannot be treated as fatal, and the rejection of benefit of the beneficial scheme to the writ petitioner by the policy relaxation committee can be interfered with". 14.In the above judgment, The Hon'ble Apex Court after referring to the various precedents across the country had recorded that there is a consistent judicial approach that distinguishes between procedural formalities and substantive elements and these beneficial s....
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....rds, the substantive rights and obligations are created by the MEIS scheme under Chapter-III of the FTP. It also becomes apparent from para 30.4 of the Policy that once the notified goods are exported to a notified market, the exporter becomes entitled to the MEIS benefits. Thus, entitlement, restriction thereof and conditions, if any, have to be found within the letters of the Chapter-III of the FTP 2015-20. Thus, the writ-applicant becomes entitled to the MEIS benefits once it exports the notified goods to the notified market. This benefit cannot be defeated due to procedural infirmity of missing to mark/tick "Y" in the rewards column. 19. It is further submitted that the issue in the present writ application is no longer res int....