(1.) This petition under Article 226 of the Constitution of India challenges an order dated 9th/10th June, 1995, passed by the Additional Director General of Foreign Trade, dismissing the petitioner's appeal for non-payment of penal amount in terms of Section 25(1)(b) of the Foreign Trade (Development and Regulation) Act, 1992.
(2.) The precise submission of Mr. Shah appearing in support of this writ petition is that the petitioner had obtained an EPCG authorisation from the Office of the Additional Director General of Foreign Trade, Ministry of Commerce and Industry, Government of India and that is in pursuance of a Foreign Trade Policy of 2004-2009. The authorisation enabled, according to the Department, the petitioner to save certain duty amount. However, an order-in-original dated 27th February, 2013, was issued by the Deputy Director General of Foreign Trade cancelling this EPCG authorisation and subsequent documents in pursuance thereof and imposing fiscal penalty of Rs. 10 lakhs under Sections 9(4) and 11(2) of the said Act. The appellant filed an appeal against this order under Section 15 of the said Act. Mr. Shah submits that the Appellate Authority has erred in dismissing the appeal for want of compliance with the requirement of deposit of penal amount simply because the appellate authority lost sight of the fact that the law enables the petitioner to seek a waiver of the condition of pre-deposit.
(3.) Such waiver was expressly sought by filing an application styled as stay application. That was received in the Office of the Director General of Foreign Trade, Udyog Bhavan, New Delhi, on 7th October, 2014, and the acknowledgement copy of which is at page 82 evidences the same.