METTUR BEARDSELL LTD Vs. APPARELS EXPORT PROMOTION COUNCIL

JUDGEMENT

(1.) The 1st petitioner is a limited company and it says that it is a recognised export house. The 2nd petitioner is the Director of the said company. For the sake of convenience, both the petitioners are hereinafter referred to as "the petitioners". They are engaged in the business of, among other things, export of ready-made garments through a division which has its office in Bombay. It has been stated in the petition, that the petitioners have exported since 1975 ready-made garments worth over Rs. 385 lakhs.

(2.) The 1st respondent, according to the petitioners, is a body set up by the 3rd respondent for the purpose of controlling, regulating and issuing a variety of export licences for the export of ready-made garments. Mr. Rawal, appearing for the 1st respondent, however, stated that the 1st respondent, hereinafter referred to for the sake of convenience as "the respondent", is a company registered under Section 25 of the Companies Act. It is not necessary to go into that controversy for the disposal of this petition.

(3.) However, it is admitted that the respondent is entrusted with the implementation of a policy for the control and regulation of export trade in respect of certain items. In the present case, the respondent, whose name is Apparels Export Promotion Council, is, as its name implies, concerned with the export of readymade garments or apparels. The Policy Statement dated 11th of November, 1978 set out that 60 per cent of the total quotas would be granted for the first half of the year, i.e. for the period January to June 1979, and 40 per cent would be allocated during the second half of the year, namely July to December 1979. The petitioners applied for certificates, which are hereinafter referred to as "the quota certificates", some time in the month of December 1978. This application was made on behalf of the petitioners in anticipating of certain contracts from Italy where they had an agent. The name of the agent was S & F Exports. One Mr. Ferrari was their representative with whom negotiations had been conducted when he was in Bombay. The petitioners received the certificate on or about 24th of January 1979. It may be stated at this stage that the delay in the issuance of the certificates was partly, at any rate, on account of some stay orders issued by some of the High Courts where this Policy had been challenged. From what has appeared in some of the documents annexed to this petition, it can be surmised that those stay orders were vacated on or about 23rd of January 1979 on probably even earlier.