The Bombay High Court has directed the Directorate General of Foreign Trade (DGFT) to process Merchandise Exports from India Scheme (MEIS) applications related to 174 shipping bills, despite earlier systemic failures in data transmission.
The bench of Justice M.S. Sonak and Justice Jitendra Jain observed that the claim was not made within one year and the facts stated above would not survive. The petitioner had informed the respondents within a period of one year, vide letter dated 16 February 2018, about the mistake in not claiming the credit in the excise return.
The petitioner had approached the court after being denied MEIS benefits due to issues in the Electronic Data Interchange (EDI) system, which failed to transmit the details of their shipping bills to the DGFT. The relief sought was twofold: directing the customs authorities to make necessary changes in the EDI system and transmit the data, and directing the DGFT to process the corresponding MEIS rewards.
During the hearing, it was informed that the customs authorities had manually amended the data and written to the DGFT to proceed with the petitioner’s application. Moreover, the petitioner also placed on record that the corrections had been carried out electronically.
The court found the matter squarely covered by its earlier rulings in Technocraft Industries (India) Ltd. v. Union of India and Larsen & Toubro Ltd. v. Union of India. It noted that systemic deficiencies cannot be used as an excuse to deny or delay legitimate benefits under government schemes.
The bench stated, “Technology is to serve the people and not to place booby traps… What the law grants cannot be denied or unduly delayed by technology meant only to assist in implementing the law.”
In light of this, the Division Bench of Justices M.S. Sonak and Jitendra Jain held that there was no justification for DGFT’s inaction, especially when the technical issues had largely been resolved and the shipping bill data was now available both manually and electronically.
The court directed the relevant DGFT authorities (Respondents 2 and 3) to process the MEIS applications for the 174 shipping bills without further delay and to communicate their decision within six weeks from the date of uploading the order.
The ruling is expected to set a precedent for similar export benefit disputes where technological roadblocks have hindered claim processing, reinforcing that procedural inefficiencies must not obstruct lawful entitlements.
Case Details
Case Title: BFN Forgings Pvt. Ltd. Versus Union of India
Case No.: 07 July 2025
Date: Writ Petition No. 3681 Of 2024
Counsel For Petitioner: Ashish Chauhan
Counsel For Respondent: Savita Ganoo
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