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2006 (3) TMI 513 - AT - CustomsConversion of Shipping Bill - DEPB Scheme to DEEC Scheme - statutory rights available to the appellant under Section 149 of the Customs Act, 1962 - HELD THAT:- Section 149 entitles the proper officer of Customs to direct amendment of any document, after it has been presented in the Custom House. By the application of conversion of the Shipping Bill, appellant was requesting the proper officer, to exercise this statutory power vested in such authority, to amend a Shipping Bill. It is not in dispute that the requirements of abovementioned proviso are satisfied by the appellant and consequently Commissioner ought to have allowed the request for conversion in stead of “bound” by the terms of a Board circular which laid down certain situations, only in which conversion was permitted. That the appellants case was not specifically covered by one of the situations contemplated in the Board’s circular cannot deny the appellants statutory right, to seek any amendment & same is lost. The statutory right, as also the statutory obligation of the proper officer to amend a document after its presentation in the Custom House cannot be curtailed or set to naught by circulars of the Board. The approach adopted by the Respondent has the effect of inferring from & conferring upon the Board Circular, a status of a statute overruling the proviso to Section 149 of the Customs Act, 1962 which is impermissible. Since the entire claim of the appellant is established on the basis of documentary evidence already in existence at the time of export, there was no valid reason for the Commissioner to have refused such an amendment. The impugned order passed is therefore clearly untenable and is to be set aside. The order is set aside and the appeal is allowed.
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