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1986 (3) TMI 230 - SC - CustomsWhether the relief granted by the High Courts should have been granted at all, not whether it should be enhanced? Held that:- The date, October 18, 1985, is a critical date, because for the first time diamond exporters can be said to have been warned that the Court could possibly take a different view from that prevailing hitherto. Meanwhile, as we have said, some of the diamond exporters had already irretrievably committed themselves by opening and establishing irrevocable Letters of Credit. We think it appropriate that those diamond exporters who were granted Additional Licences under the Import Policy 1978-79 and had opened and established irrevocable Letters of Credit before October 18, 1985 should be permitted, notwithstanding the construction we have placed on the order dated April 18, 1985 of the Court, to clear the goods imported, or to be imported, by them pursuant to such irrevocable Letters of Credit. In other words, all imports effected pursuant to such Letters of Credit should be deemed to have been legally and properly made, and should entail no adverse consequences whatsoever. In taking this view we are impressed by the broad principles of justice, equity and fair play and by the need to avoid undeserved hardship, and we are not persuaded to the contrary by legal technicalities. We may point out that the validity of principle has been recognised in Paragraph 35(3) of the Import Policy 1985-88 itself, where while declaring that Additional Licences issued to Export Houses in the preceding licencing year or earlier shall cease to be valid for the import of items of spares appearing in certain Appendices, including Appendix 3, of the Import Policy for the licencing year an exception has been carved out insofar that “these restrictions will not apply to the extent the licence holders have made firm commitments by irrevocable Letters of Credit opened and established.....before 1st April, 1985”, the date when the Import Policy 1985-88 came into force. Also diamond exporters who pursuant to the issue of Additional Licences under the Import Policy 1978-79 have opened and established irrevocable Letters of Credit on or after October 18, 1985 will not be entitled to the benefit of this order.
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