Point of Law: The exporter/appellant’s fault here is that it did not file the requisite declaration. In all other respects, i.e. as to whether they conform to the description in the shipping documents and the value etc., continues to be ascertainable because the concerned bills, invoices and other shipping documents are available with the Custom authorities

JUDGMENT :

J.B.PARDIWALA, J.

1 By this writ application under Article 226 of the Constitution of India, the writ applicant, a company, has prayed for the following reliefs:

“(A) That Your Lordships may be pleased to issue a writ of mandamus or any other appropriate writ, direction or order striking down circular No.36/2010 Cus dated 23.9.2010 (i.e. para 3(a) of this Circular) as ultra vires Section 149 of the Customs Act, 1962 and also ultra vires Articles 14 and 19(1)(g) of the Constitution of India;

(B) That Your Lordships may be pleased to issue a writ of certiorari or a writ of mandamus or any other appropriate writ, order or direction quashing and setting O/O No.AHM-CUSTOM-000-COM-007-19020 dated 30.09.2019 passed by the Principal Commissioner of Customs, Ahmedabad, the 2nd respondent herein, with a direction to this respondent to pay drawback of Rs.11,18,458/to the petitioner.

(C) That Your Lordships may be pleased to issue a writ of mandamus or any other appropriate writ, direction or order directing the respondent No.2 herein to pay interest to the petitioner under Rule 14 of the Drawback Rules on the drawback amount of Rs.11,18,458/.

(D) Pending hearing and final disposal of the present petition, Your Lordships may be pleased to direct the 2nd respondent herein to pay to the petitioner principal amount of drawback aggregating to Rs.11,18,458/on the terms and conditions that may be deemed fit by this Hon'ble Court.

(E) An exparte adinterim relief in terms of para 17(D) above may be kindly be granted;

(F) Any other further relief as may be deemed fit in the facts and circumstances of the case may also please be granted.”

2. The facts giving rise to this writ application may be summarised as under:

2.1 The writ applicant is engaged in the business of manufacture of goods like printing blankets of rubber, etc. The company is also engaged in exporting such goods to the foreign countries. The present litigation has something to do with 41 consignments of the rubber printing blankets of different sizes exported by the writ applicant from the Inland Container Depot (ICD) at Sabarmati as well as the Ahmedabad Air Cargo Complex (ACC) between October, 2017 and November, 2018.

2.2 It is the case of the writ applicant that the export was in accordance with the customs procedure of issuing a shipping bill, an export invoice and other documents mentioning therein the full description of the goods and also their classification as well as the quantity and value of the goods.

2.3 It is the case of the writ applicant that the goods were exported for the fulfillment of the export obligations arising in respect of the EPCG (Export Promotion Capital Goods) Licences and as the writ applicant was under an impression that the due drawback was not allowed for the goods exported for fulfillment of obligations under the EPCG Scheme, the claim for drawback was not declared on the export document.

2.4 Sometime in December, 2018, the writ applicant came to know that the duty drawback at 1.5% of the FOB value was being allowed for the goods in question despite the fact that such goods were exported for the fulfillment of the obligations under the EPCG Scheme.

2.5 The writ applicant started exporting the goods following the same procedure of mentioning the full description and value of the goods, classification of the goods and such other information and also declaring on the export document that the duty drawback was claimed.

2.6 The writ applicant preferred an application dated 28th January 2019 requesting the Commissioner of Customs to allow the amendment of 41 shipping bills lodged during the period between October, 2017 and November, 2018 by converting such shipping bills into drawback shipping bills by mentioning the claim for duty drawback on the shipping bills and invoices. The writ applicant invoked Section 149 of the Customs Act, 1962.

2.7 One another letter dated 25th July 2019 was submitted by the writ applicant requesting the Commissioner of Customs to