Rohinton Fali Nariman JUDGMENT
A.K. Sikri, J.
Civil Appeal No. 554 of 2006
Civil Appeal No. 658 of 2006
Civil Appeal No. 1587 of 2006
Civil Appeal No. 1589 of 2006
Transfer Case (Civil) No. 36 of 2007
Transfer Case (Civil) No. 1 of 2008
Transfer Case (Civil) No. 3 of 2008
Transfer Case (Civil) No. 49 of 2009
Writ Petition (Civil) No. 343 of 2009
Writ Petition (Civil) No. 246 of 2010
1. Export Import (EXIM) Policy 2002-2007 was framed by the Central Government Under Section 5 of the Foreign Trade (Development and Regulation) Act, 1992 (hereinafter referred to as the 'Act'), which came into force with effect from April 01, 2003. The main purpose and objective of this Policy was to boost the exports. In furtherance of the same, a Special Scheme containing the provisions thereof was incorporated therein which gave certain kind of incentives to the exporters of some specified items. However, some amendments were made thereto vide Notification No. 28 : MANU/DGFT/0018/2004 dated January 28, 2004. On the same day, Public Notice No. 40(RE-2003)/2002-2007 was also issued in exercise of powers conferred under the provisions of Para 2.4 of the said Policy, which was followed by Notification No. 38 : MANU/DGFT/0049/2004 dated April 21, 2004 and Notification No. 40 : MANU/DGFT/0050/2004 dated April 23, 2004.
2. Vide Notification No. 28 : MANU/DGFT/0018/2004 dated January 28, 2004, the Central Government sought to amend certain provisions of the EXIM Policy by inserting Notes 1 to 5, which was unpalatable to the exporters of the goods mentioned therein as, according to them, under the guise of the said Notes, some benefits which had already accrued to these exporters under the EXIM Policy were taken away. Vide Public Notice dated January 28, 2004, the Government announced exclusion of export performance in relation to four classes of goods mentioned in para 2 thereof from computation of the entitlement under the Scheme and, at the same time, sought to disallow the import of agricultural products falling under Chapters I to XXIV of ITC (HS) under the said scheme. Thereafter, Notification No. 38 : MANU/DGFT/0049/2004 dated April 21, 2004 was published Under Section 5 of the Act on the same lines on which Public Notice dated January 28, 2004 was issued. The exporters of these goods, naturally, felt aggrieved thereby. There was an innocuous amendment to Notification No. 38 : MANU/DGFT/0049/2004 dated April 21, 2004 wherein in addition to the Director General of Foreign Trade (for short, 'DGFT') as an Officer to enforce these Notifications, ex-officio Additional Secretary to the Government of India was also added. All........