MEIS benefits cannot be fatal merely due to inadvertent mistake of procedure

Shah Nanji Nagsi Exports Pvt. Ltd. Vs Union of India And Ors. (Supreme Court of India)

Supreme Court held that once exports are genuine and fall within the notified category, inadvertent mistakes of procedure cannot be treated as fatal, especially where they are corrected under statutory authority. Thus, appeal allowed. Accordingly, benefit of MEIS allowed.

Facts- The appellant is a private company engaged in the export of corn starch. During the period between 22.07.2017 to 05.10.2017, the appellant effected 54 shipping bills under Serial No. 467 of Appendix 3B to the Foreign Trade Policy (FTP) 2015–20 and was eligible for incentive under the Merchandise Exports from India Scheme (MEIS) contained in Chapter 3 of the Policy.

For each of these consignments, shipping bills were filed electronically on the ICEGATE platform through the appellant’s customs broker. It so happened that in the column requiring a declaration of intent to claim reward, the default entry “No” which was to be altered as “Yes” was not done by Customs broker. This inadvertent omission, though clerical in nature, prevented the shipping bills from being transmitted to the repository of the Directorate General of Foreign Trade (DGFT). The consequence was that the appellant’s claim for MEIS reward could not be processed electronically.