Delhi High Court - Orders
Indian Flexible Intermediate Bulk ... vs Director General Of Foreign Trade on 22 February, 2022
Author: Rajiv Shakdher
Bench: Rajiv Shakdher, Talwant Singh
$~41
* IN THE HIGH COURT OF DELHI AT NEW DELHI
+ W.P.(C) 14779/2021 & CM APPL. 46500/2021 & 47436/2021
INDIAN FLEXIBLE INTERMEDIATE BULK CONTAINER
ASSOCIATION ..... Petitioner
Through: Mr Rajeev Saxena, Adv.
versus
DIRECTOR GENERAL OF FOREIGN TRADE ..... Respondent
Through: Mr Gaurang Kanth, CGSC with Ms
Heena Kochar, Mr Vineet Malhotra,
Mr Vishal Gohri, Advs.
CORAM:
HON'BLE MR. JUSTICE RAJIV SHAKDHER
HON'BLE MR. JUSTICE TALWANT SINGH
ORDER
% 22.02.2022 [Court hearing convened via video-conferencing on account of COVID-19]
1. This matter has been received on transfer from Division Bench-I.
2. Mr Rajeev Saxena, who appears for the petitioner, concedes that one of the reliefs that is sought in the writ petition concerns the challenge to the public notice dated 29.01.2020, issued by the Department of Commerce, Ministry of Commerce & Industry, Government of India. 2.1. Mr Saxena says that the petitioner is aggrieved by the fact that the aforesaid notice has resulted in the withdrawal of benefits available to the petitioner under the Merchandise Exports from India Scheme [in short "MEIS"] qua apparel and made ups sector (Chapter 61, 62 and 63 of ITC HS 2017) with retrospective effect i.e., 07.03.2019. 2.2. Furthermore, Mr Saxena says that, via a fresh notification dated 01.02.2022, it has been indicated that the last date for acceptance of W.P.(C) 14779/2021 1/3 Signature Not Verified Digitally Signed By:ATUL JAIN Signing Date:24.02.2022 15:07:22 applications for filing claims under MEIS would be 28.02.2022.
3. Given this position, the Union of India (UOI), through the Ministry of Commerce and Industry (Department of Commerce), is arrayed as a party to the present proceedings.
3.1. The aforesaid party will be arrayed as respondent no.2 to the present proceedings.
4. Furthermore, the petitioner will be entitled to place its application for claiming benefit under MEIS before respondent no.1, albeit, in the form of a hard copy as the e-portal, we are told, is not accepting the application for grant of MEIS benefits.
4.1. The said application will be filed on or before 28.02.2022. The application will be made, for the moment, under the regime which operated prior to the notification dated 29.01.2020.
4.2. However, it is made clear that the fact that we have given leave to the petitioner to file the said application, will not result in the petitioner claiming any equity in case it finally fails in the writ petition. 4.3. This aforesaid direction will be without prejudice to the rights and contentions of the parties in the instant matter.
5. List the matter on 27.09.2022.
6. At this stage, Mr Vineet Malhotra, who appears for the respondent/DGFT [now respondent no.1] points out that the public notice dated 29.01.2020 has been issued on the back of the notification dated 14.01.2020, issued by the Ministry of Textiles. 6.1. This notification has been appended by the respondent/DGFT along with their counter-affidavit, and is marked as Annexure-R1.
W.P.(C) 14779/2021 2/3 Signature Not Verified Digitally Signed By:ATUL JAIN Signing Date:24.02.2022 15:07:226.2. Given this position, while arraying the UOI, not only will the Ministry of Commerce and Industry be arrayed as a party to the proceedings, but the Ministry of Textiles will also be arrayed as a party to the writ petition.
7. The amended memo of parties will be filed by the petitioner, within the next two weeks.
8. Parties will act based on the digitally signed copy of this order.
RAJIV SHAKDHER, J TALWANT SINGH, J FEBRUARY 22, 2022 rb Click here to check corrigendum, if any W.P.(C) 14779/2021 3/3 Signature Not Verified Digitally Signed By:ATUL JAIN Signing Date:24.02.2022 15:07:22