- (1.) The petitioner's grievance in this writ application is that the respondents were refusing to allow clearance of uninked Ribbon Tape imported by the petitioner unless the petitioner produced a licence. According to the petitioner Uninked Tape imported by the petitioner was utilisable as raw material for manufacturing of Ribbon Cartridges for printers/typewriters. It is submitted that the goods in question were freely importable by reason of paragraph 22 of Chapter V of the Export and Import Policy of 1992-97.
(2.) The respondents have sought to contend that the goods imported by the petitioner came within paragraph 156, Item 4 of Chapter XV of the Export and Import Policy, 1992-97 and as such cannot be imported except under specific licence. It is, further, submitted that the matter had been referred to the Director General of Foreign Trade who had decided that the goods were classifiable under paragraph No. 156(4) of the Negative List of imports in the Export and Import Policy, 1992-97 and that the import could only be permitted against specific import licence. It is further submitted by the respondents that by virtue of paragraph 20 of Chapter 4 of the policy the decision of the Director General of Foreign Trade was final on the issue.
(3.) In my view, the action of the respondent authorities in insisting upon a licence for clearance of the Uninked Tape imported by the petitioner is unjustified. I say so for the following reasons :- (1) Under paragraph 22 Chapter V of the Export and Import Policy, 1992-97 all raw materials are freely importable except to the extent such imports are regulated by the Negative List. In other words there is a general freedom of import with restrictions carved out of such general provisions. The restriction relied upon by the respondents in this case are contained in Chapter XV of the policy. Chapter XV deals with the Negative List of Imports. The Negative List of Imports contains the list of prohibited items, restricted items and canalised items. The paragraph which deals with the restricted items is paragraph 156, part II of Chapter XV. Paragraph 156 contains the list of eleven (11) types of restricted items (Numbered serially A to K). The first of such is a list of consumer goods. The consumer goods are not permitted to be imported except against the licence or in accordance with the public notice (PN) issued in this behalf. Therefore if the goods imported come within the description of consumer goods, they must be imported against a licence. The definition of consumer goods has been given in Chapter III paragraph 7(12) and reads as follows :- " Consumer Goods' means any consumption goods which can directly satisfy human needs without further processing and include consumer durables and accessories, components, parts and spares of such consumer durables." So far as the imported goods are concerned there is no dispute that the goods required further processing. It is not even denied that they are, in fact, raw material utilised for the purpose of printing or typewriting. Unless tapes are inked, they cannot be utilised for this purpose. The imported goods, therefore, do not appear to be consumer goods at all and as such do not come within the Restricted Items List. (2) It is true that under paragraph 20 of Chapter IV of the policy if any question or doubt arises in respect of the interpretation of any provision of the policy, the question or doubt is required to be referred to the Director General of Foreign Trade and his decision shall be final. The item in respect of which doubt had been expressed by the respondent authorities does not appear to relate to the imported goods at all. The letter by which the matter had been referred to the DGFT speaks of "Clarification for the import of compatible rolls (nylon and polyester strip of woven fabric) sized 1", 1 , 2"". The items appears to be finished product and not raw material as is the case so far as the petitioner is concerned. Therefore, the clarification that the compatible rolls were importable only against a specific import licence would not apply to the petitioner's goods. (3) There is also substance in the petitioner's contention that the purported clarification in this particular case has been made by the Director General of Foreign Trade. In terms of paragraph 20 of Chapter IV of the policy it is the Director General of Foreign Trade above who is the authority for issuing the clarification and the clarification issued by any other authority can not be held to be binding or final (See in this connection Sandeep Agarwal . Collector of Customs, 1992 62 ELT 528, paragraphs 27, 28 and 29).;