INDIAN EXPORTERS GRIEVANCE FORUM Vs. UNION OF INDIA

JUDGEMENT

(1.) Petitioner No.1 is the Indian Exporters Grievance Forum, which is a society registered under the Societies Registration Act, 1860 and having as its members professional exporting firms and Government recognised Export Houses, Trading Houses, Star Trading Houses and Super Star Trading Houses. It has, along with its authorised signatory Mr.Harish Kumar, Petitioner No.2, filed this petition seeking a declaration that para 3.2.5 of the Handbook of Procedure (,,HBP) and the Public Notice dated 21st June 2007 issued by the Directorate General of Foreign Trade (,,DGFT), Department of Commerce, Ministry of Commerce & Industry, Government of India are ultra vires Articles 14, 19(1)(g) and 300A of the Constitution of India and/or Section 5 of the Foreign Trade (Development & Regulation) Act, 1992 (,,FTDR Act), the provisions of para 3.7.6 of the Foreign Trade Policy (,,FTP) and Section 25 of the Customs Act, 1962.

(2.) The Petitioners also pray for the quashing of the Circular dated 8th May 2007 issued by the Department of Revenue, Ministry of Finance, Government of India in terms of which for the purposes of availing of duty credit, the exporter would have to demonstrate that the items sought to be imported should be an "input" in the manufacture of the exported items. Background

(3.) The brief facts leading to the filing of the present petition are that the FTP was announced on 31st August 2004. It contained an export incentive scheme called the Target Plus Scheme (,,TPS), which was effective from 1st April 2004 to 31st March 2005. The TPS was continued for one more year from 1st April 2005 to 31st March 2006. It was thereafter discontinued. The relevant provision of the TPS dealing with the eligibility, entitlement and items permissible for import of the TPS during the above period reads as under: