The duty credit scrips issued by the DGFT must be registered by the authorities, and the respondents cannot backtrack from their earlier concession without proper justification.

JUDGMENT

Vikas Bahl, J. - The present petitioner has filed this writ petition seeking a writ of mandamus directing the respondents to register duty credit scrips issued under Merchandise Exports from India Scheme (MEIS) and Rebate of State and Center Taxes and Levies (ROSCTL) by the Directorate General of Foreign Trade, Ludhiana (hereinafter referred to as "DGFT").

2. The petitioner's case in the present writ petition is that, it is a Partnership firm and is engaged in the business of manufacture and export of knitted textile garments and is holding an Import Export Code Number No.3010012691 dated 25.11.2010, issued by the office of Director General of Foreign Trade, Ludhiana. It is further the case of the petitioner that the turnover of the petitioner both in respect to domestic and export is very substantial and for the said purpose, the petitioner has given a chart in Para 4 of the writ petition showing the domestic and export turnover of the petitioner for 2 years i.e. 2017-18 and 2018-19. The said chart is reproduced hereinbelow:-

Financial Year Domestic Export (In Crore) 2017-18 44.75 79.64 2018-19 34.00 75.00

3. That it is further the case of the petitioner that on 17.06.2019, staff of Directorate of Revenue Intelligence (hereinafter referred to as "DRI") searched the factory premises of the petitioner and during the course of search seized physical and electronic records lying in the factory premises and also recorded statement of the partners of the petitioner. It is further averred that the DRI summoned various input suppliers of the petitioner and the petitioner, to show its bona fide as per the direction of DRI, deposited a sum of Rs.50 lakhs towards any future liability. It is averred that the DRI directed different authorities including DGFT to withhold export incentives and the DGFT without applying its independent mind withheld export incentives of the petitioner and put the name of the petitioner in the Denied Entity List (DEL). It is further averred that no prior opportunity was granted to the petitioner. Although, the DRI permitted the petitioner to continue their export, however, the DGFT on account of the directions/alerts issued by DRI did not release export incentives. References have been made in the writ petition to the letters dated 14.10.2020 (Annexure P-5) and 22.10.2020 (Annexure P-6) in which it has been observed that the alert which have been issued against the Import Export Code (IEC) of the petitioner was active on date.

4. That the petitioner is stated to have filed CWP No.16214 of 2020 before this Court seeking directions to the Additional Director General of DGFT and DRI to release the admissible export incentives. Reliance has been placed upon the short affidavit filed by Deputy Director General of Foreign Trade (Annexure P-8) in the above-said writ petition. The short affidavit is reproduced hereinbelow:-

"CWP No.16214 of 2020 Worldwide Tradelinks .......Petitioner Versus Additional Director General, Directorate General of Foreign Trade and Another. ....Respondents Short affidavit on behalf of respondents No.1 through Shri Navtej Singh S/o S. Iqbal Singh, ITS, Deputy Director General of Foreign Trade, age 40 years, office of Additional Director General of Foreign Trade, Green Field, Ludhiana. I the above named deponent do hereby solemnly affirm and declare as under: 1. That the above-mentioned writ petition has been filed by the petitioner seeking issuance of writ of mandamus directing the respondents to release export incentives namely, MEIS, ROSL and ROSCTL. 2. That on 05.10.2020 the Hon'ble Court had issued Notice of Motion for 04.11.2020. 3. That after issuance of Notice of Motion, the respondents No.2 vide letter No.DRI/LDZU/856/INT-3/ENQ-1/19/PT.I/250 dated 22.10.2020 had informed the answering respondents that DRI has no objection if the export scrips, if any to the petitioner. Copy of letter dated 22.10.2020 is Annexure R-1/1. 4. That in pursuance to the letter dated 22.10.2020 the nam