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TMI Blog2023 (10) TMI 12X X X X Extracts X X X X X X X X Extracts X X X X ..... lls from free shipping bills to drawback shipping bills under Section 149 of the Customs Act, 1962 [the Act]. 2. Undisputedly, the exports were completed in 2016. According to the petitioner, due to inadvertence the 32 shipping bills were categorized as free shipping bills and the petitioner had failed to indicate that they sought to claim drawback benefits. It was in the aforesaid backdrop that the petitioner had moved the competent authority for being permitted to amend the free shipping bills into drawback shipping bills. 3. The respondents have pursuant to the notices issued on the instant writ petition filed a detailed counter affidavit. The stand taken by the respondents essentially is that the petitioner had applied for conversion ..... X X X X Extracts X X X X X X X X Extracts X X X X ..... se A, the request for conversion from one scheme to another was not to be done ordinarily in routine. It was primarily for the reason that such conversion at a later date created difficulties. There is no dispute with regard to submissions as made by the learned counsel for the exporter/appellant that the circular could not override the scope of the Section 149 of the Act and cannot be generalised in every case of amendment of shipping bills. By submitting these arguments, the learned counsel tried to emphasise that the request of exporter for conversion of the shipping bills from one scheme to another was that of amendment under Section 149 of the Act and not only confined to conversion within the scope of the aforesaid circular. In fact, ..... X X X X Extracts X X X X X X X X Extracts X X X X ..... it amendment in any document after the same has been presented in the Customs house. Though this discretion was to be exercised judiciously, but it was qualified with the proviso that the amendment could be allowed only if it was based on the documentary evidence in existence at the time the goods were exported. The Commissioner in the remand case has rightly observed that the present case in fact relates to the request for conversion of shipping bills from one export promotion scheme into another and was not merely of an amendment in the shipping bill. The request was made for conversion from one scheme to another after the lapse of long period of more than one year. It was a case of request for "conversion" and not of "amendment" inasmuch ..... X X X X Extracts X X X X X X X X Extracts X X X X ..... of the documents but also the goods itself. It was in the aforesaid backdrop that learned counsel submitted that no interference is warranted by the Court in respect of the order impugned. 6. However, learned counsel for the petitioner had drawn our attention to the judgment rendered by the Gujarat High Court in M/s. Mahalaxmi Rubtech Ltd. v. Union of India [NCN: 2021:GUJHC:9475-DB] and which had proceeded to quash Circular No. 36. We are also apprised that the Special Leave Petition which was taken by the Union in respect of that decision came to be dismissed on 11 April 2023 albeit by way of a non-speaking order. 7. We may, at the outset, note that notwithstanding the judgment of the Gujarat High Court, we are of the firm opinion that ..... X X X X Extracts X X X X X X X X Extracts X X X X ..... ion, the same enables the authority to consider any prayer for amendment of the shipping bills subject only to the rider that the same is based on documentary evidence which was in existence at the time when the goods were exported. In the present case, the impugned order does not rest on an impossibility to scrutinize or dispose of the application for amendment nor does it allude to any other practical difficulty or aspect of impossibility which would have hindered consideration of the request made by the petitioner. In Terra Films the Division Bench had on facts noted that the respondents had taken the position that it would be impossible to accede to the request for amendment. In view of the aforesaid, we find ourselves unable to sustain ..... X X X X Extracts X X X X X X X X Extracts X X X X
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