Louis Dreyfus Company (India) Pvt. Limited Vs Union of India (Karnataka High Court)
Conclusion: Export incentives in terms of Notification No.19/2015-20 dated 17.08.2021 couldn’t be denied for inadvertent error in shipping bill as merely because of a software system was introduced, it would not mean that the software would override the principles of natural justice and rights of the parties.
Held: Assessee had uploaded the shipping bills. In the column indicating the claim for export benefit, inadvertently, assessee had not selected the option ‘Yes’ in the relevant field in the form. In fact, assessee had selected the option ‘No’ in the form and as such, export benefit in relation to the advantage was not provided to assessee. Assessee had approached the department for amendment of the said shipping bill and for grant of export benefit. The said application was not accepted on the ground that the shipping bills had been provided in the online manner and there was no scope for amendment of the online shipping bill and furthermore, there was no procedure envisaged for a manual amendment of shipping bill which was submitted in online. The department argued that there could be denial of the export benefit as available to assessee in terms of shipping bill which had been uploaded through online. However, since there was no procedure which was envisaged for amendment through online or for manual amendment, the request of the assessee could not be processed. It was held that prior to software being introduced, it was always available to allow amendment of the documents by assessee physically by submitting the application which would be considered by the concerned authorities. Merely because of a software system was introduced, it would not mean that the software would override the principles of natural justice and rights of the parties. The software could not govern the relationship between assessee and Revenue. The bench stated that it would therefore require for Revenue to implement such features as may be required in the software to enable assessee to amend any of the documents filed subject of course to certain restrictions and supervision of the concerned authorities. Therefore, assessee would be entitled for export benefit even though no claim was made at the time of uploading the shipping bills.
