High Court directs DGFT to decide on eligibility for incentives under TMA scheme

Case Name:

Chillies Exporters Association India v. Directorate General of Foreign Trade & Anr.

Key Takeaways:

• The petitioner sought a direction to the DGFT to allow them to apply for incentives under the TMA scheme.
• The petitioner claimed that the DGFT failed to operationalize and implement the revised scheme, resulting in the denial of incentives for specific exports.
• The court treated the writ petition as a representation and ordered the competent authority in the DGFT to issue a reasoned order within twelve weeks.
• The court clarified that it had not expressed any opinion on the merits of the controversy and left the rights and contentions of all parties open.

Case Law Synopsis:

This is a judgment from the High Court of Delhi at New Delhi in the case of W.P.(C) 15279/2023 between Chillies Exporters Association India (the petitioner) and the Directorate General of Foreign Trade & Anr. (the respondents). The judgment was delivered on 28th November 2023 by Hon’ble the Acting Chief Justice and Hon’ble Ms. Justice Mini Pushkarna.

The petitioner filed the present petition seeking a direction to the Directorate General of Foreign Trade (DGFT) to permit them to apply for incentives under the Transport and Marketing Assistance for Specified Agriculture Products Scheme dated 9th September 2021 (revised TMA scheme). The petitioner claimed that they were aggrieved by the failure of the DGFT to operationalize and implement the revised scheme, which intended to grant incentives to exporters of specified agricultural products.

The petitioner stated that they had negotiated and fixed export prices with importers located outside India based on the assurance that incentives would be granted for exports made during the period 1st April 2021 to 31st March 2022. However, when the exporters tried to submit their applications to avail incentives under the scheme on the online portal operated by the DGFT, they were unable to do so due to the lack of functionality of the DGFT portal.

Meanwhile, the DGFT issued a notification on 25th March 2022, foreclosing and withdrawing the revised TMA scheme. As a result, the exporters were unable to avail benefits under the scheme for exports made during the period 1st April 2021 to 25th March 2022.

The petitioner contended that the failure of the DGFT to operationalize and implement the TMA scheme and the non-operability of the DGFT portal should not be the basis for denying the accrued and vested incentives of the exporters.

Court’s Decision:

The court noted that although the lack of functionality of the DGFT portal was averred by the petitioner, they had directly approached the court without filing any documents to show the non-functionality of the portal or making any written representation to the DGFT. Therefore, the court directed the present writ petition to be treated as a representation and to be decided by the competent authority in the Office of DGFT by way of a reasoned order within twelve weeks.

The court granted the petitioner the liberty to file additional documents with the DGFT within three weeks. The court clarified that it had not expressed any opinion on the merits of the controversy and left the rights and contentions of all the parties open.

In conclusion, the present writ petition was disposed of with the aforementioned direction and liberty given to the petitioner.

Please note that this is a synopsis, please read the full judgement below FAQ.

FAQ

Q- What was the petitioner seeking in the case?

A- The petitioner sought a direction to the DGFT to permit them to apply for incentives under the Transport and Marketing Assistance for Specified Agriculture Products Scheme.

Q- What was the petitioner’s grievance?

A- The petitioner claimed that the DGFT failed to operationalize and implement the revised scheme, resulting in the denial of incentives for exports made during a specific period.

Q- What did the court direct in its judgment?

A- The court directed the present writ petition to be treated as a representation and ordered the competent authority in the DGFT to issue a reasoned order within twelve weeks.