Aadrikaa Legal Services (ALS)- Law I Litigation I Arbitration
Date: 21.10.2026
Bombay HC: DGFT Cannot Retrospectively Apply Import Restrictions to Goods Shipped Before Notification
This Short Article has been prepared & written by Advocate Ravi Shekhar Jha-Delhi High Court, New Delhi. The views expressed are based on his interpretation of the law. He can be reached at his email id intelconsul@gmail.com .
The Bombay High Court has held that an import restriction cannot be applied to goods that were dispatched and had arrived in India before the restriction was published in the Official Gazette, even where the bills of entry were filed later.
The dispute: a change from βFreeβ to βRestrictedβ
In Heimerle Refinery Private Limited v. Union of India & Ors., the petitioner imported studded platinum jewellery under five airway bills dated 30 and 31 March 2026. The consignments reached India on 1 and 2 April 2026.
The Directorate General of Foreign Trade (DGFT) had issued Notification No. 02/2026-27, dated 1 April 2026, changing the import policy for goods under Customs Tariff Heading 7113 from βFreeβ to βRestricted.β However, the notification was uploaded to the e-Official Gazette only on 2 April 2026 at approximately 8:52 p.m.
Customs authorities declined clearance of certain consignments because the related bills of entry were filed after publication of the notification. The importer challenged this approach, arguing that the relevant import date under the Foreign Trade Policy was the date of shipment or dispatch, not the later date of filing or clearance of the bill of entry.
The central legal issue
The case turned on a narrow but important question: which date governs the applicability of an import-policy restriction under the Foreign Trade Policy?
The authorities argued that goods not cleared for home consumption before the restriction came into force were subject to the revised βRestrictedβ policy. They relied on customs-law principles that treat clearance across the customs barrier as significant for determining the applicable rate of duty.
The Court rejected that approach for this dispute. It distinguished between:
- Customs duty issues, where the Customs Act may make the date of filing a bill of entry or clearance relevant; and
- Import-policy restrictions under the Foreign Trade Policy, where the policy itself defines the date of import differently.
Why the Court ruled for the importer
The Court relied on paragraph 1.05(b) of the Foreign Trade Policy 2023, read with paragraphs 2.17(a) and 11.11 of the Handbook of Procedures. These provisions make the date of shipment or dispatch from the supplying country the relevant date for determining importability under the policy.
For imports by air, paragraph 11.11 treats the relevant date as the date on the airway bill, provided it reflects when the goods left the last airport in the exporting country.
Because the jewellery had been dispatched on 30 and 31 March 2026 and had arrived in India before the e-Gazette publication on 2 April 2026, the Court found that the later restriction could not apply to those consignments.
The Court also emphasized that a notification gains legal force only upon publication in the Official Gazette. In the context of an e-Gazette, the specific upload time matters. The notification therefore could not operate retrospectively against goods already dispatched and imported before that publication.
Customs clearance date was not decisive
A key part of the judgment is its clarification that filing a bill of entry after a policy change does not, by itself, make the new import restriction applicable.
The Court held that the date of filing a bill of entry is relevant to the rate of customs duty under Section 15 of the Customs Act. But the case did not concern a change in duty rate or valuation. It concerned a change in import policy under the Foreign Trade (Development and Regulation) Act and the Foreign Trade Policy.
Applying customs-duty timing rules to a policy restriction, the Court said, would make the Foreign Trade Policyβs own definition of the date of import redundant.
DGFT clarification could not override the policy
The DGFT had issued an Office Memorandum on 13 May 2026 stating that consignments not cleared before 1 April 2026 would be governed by the revised restricted policy, regardless of their arrival date or bill-of-entry status.
The Court held that this executive clarification had no statutory force and could not override the Foreign Trade Policy or alter its definition of the date of import. It also could not retrospectively expand the notificationβs effect.
In the Courtβs view, changing the policy in that manner would require an amendment made through the legally prescribed statutory process, not an administrative memorandum.
The outcome
The Bombay High Court allowed the writ petition and directed the authorities to release the consignments covered by Bills of Entry Nos. 8590663, 8590666 and 8735308. It declared that Notification No. 02/2026-27 did not apply to goods that had arrived in India before its publication in the e-Official Gazette on 2 April 2026.
The ruling aligns with earlier decisions of the Gujarat High Court in Enero Jewels and the Delhi High Court in Bright Metal Refiners, both of which had permitted clearance of goods imported before publication of a similar restriction despite post-notification bills of entry.
Practical significance for importers
This decision draws a clear line between the timing rules for customs duty and those for import-policy restrictions. Where the Foreign Trade Policy defines the date of import by shipment or dispatch, importers may rely on the airway bill or other prescribed transport document to establish that the goods were imported before a later policy restriction became legally effective.
For goods transported by air, the airway bill date can therefore be critical evidence. The judgment also reinforces that an e-Gazette notification takes effect at the time it is actually published online, not merely on the date printed on the notification.
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Source: Bombay High Court
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