TMI Blog2013 (4) TMI 390X X X X Extracts X X X X X X X X Extracts X X X X ..... to avail of the statutory remedy within the period of forty five days or even within the further period of thirty days prescribed by the proviso to Section 15(1). The petition before this Court was filed only on 11 May 2012. Ordinarily the exercise of jurisdiction under Article 226, in the face of an alternate remedy, can only be by way of an exception where an order has been passed without jurisdiction or in violation of fundamental rights or in breach of the principles of natural justice. In the present case, the Petitioner failed to espouse the alternate remedy which is available and has approached this Court much after the period prescribed by the statute has expired. Thus such a petition cannot be entertained. Article 226 cannot b ..... X X X X Extracts X X X X X X X X Extracts X X X X ..... A licenses on the ground that the request could not be considered in terms of paragraph 2.13.1 of the Hand Book of Procedures. 2. Between 23 April 2008 and 25 November 2010, 24 DFIA Licenses were issued to the Petitioner by the Joint Director General of Foreign Trade. According to the Petitioner, it complied with the export obligation following which the Third Respondent issued a certificate of discharge of the export obligation. The Petitioner applied for revalidation of the licenses, which request was rejected as noted by diverse orders annexed at Exhibits-D-1 to D-10 to the petition. 3. A preliminary objection has been raised to the maintainability of the petition on the ground that a statutory alternate remedy was available to the P ..... X X X X Extracts X X X X X X X X Extracts X X X X ..... decision or order has been made by the Director General, to the Central Government; (b) Where the decision or order has been made by an officer subordinate to the Director General, to the Director-General or to any officer superior to the Adjudicating Authority authorised by the Director- General to hear the appeal, within a period of forty-five days from the date on which the decision or order is served on such person : Provided that the Appellate Authority may, if it is satisfied that the appellant was prevented by sufficient cause from preferring the appeal within the aforesaid period, allow such appeal to be preferred within a further period of thirty days : Provided further that in the case of an appeal against a decision or ord ..... X X X X Extracts X X X X X X X X Extracts X X X X ..... f 45 days from the date of service of the decision of the order for filing an appeal. Under the proviso, the Appellate Authority is empowered to allow the appeal to be preferred within a further period of thirty days if it is satisfied that the Appellant was prevented by sufficient cause from preferring the appeal. 6. There is no dispute before this Court, during the course of hearing, that the orders of the Foreign Development Officer were subject to the remedy of an appeal under Section 9(5) read with Section 15, since the effect of those orders is to deny the request for renewal or revalidation. The Petitioner failed to avail of the statutory remedy within the period of forty five days or even within the further period of thirty days p ..... X X X X Extracts X X X X X X X X Extracts X X X X ..... utory remedy was not availed of. 7. On merits it has been urged on behalf of the Petitioner that the ground on which revalidation was refused was that revalidation was not permissible in view of the terms of paragraph 2.13.1 of the Hand Book of Procedures. This is questioned. In view of our finding on the issue of maintainability, the second question on merits will not arise. However, for the sake of completeness, we will deal with the submission on merits hereafter. For the reasons which we now indicate, there is no substance in the contention on merits. 8. Paragraph 4.72 of Chapter-V of the Foreign Trade Policy stipulates that once an export obligation has been fulfilled, a request for transferability of the authorization may be made ..... X X X X Extracts X X X X X X X X Extracts X X X X
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