Bombay High Court: an import-restriction notification binds only goods dispatched after it is published

The Bombay High Court has ruled that a notification restricting the import of certain goods takes legal effect only from the moment it is published in the Official Gazette, and cannot be applied to goods already dispatched from the exporting country before that moment, even if they reach India afterwards. A refinery company's gold consignments, already despatched and later arriving in India in the hours before a notification changing the import policy for the goods from 'free' to 'restricted' was gazetted, were refused clearance by customs on the ground that the restriction applied. Justices M. S. Karnik and Sandesh D. Patil held that the notification acquired the force of law only at the precise time of its publication in the Gazette, relying on the Supreme Court's rulings in Union of India v. Ganesh Das Bhojraj and Kiran Spinning Mills, and could validly apply only to goods dispatched afterward.

The Court also clarified that while the date goods cross the customs barrier decides when 'import' is complete under the Customs Act, the Foreign Trade Policy defines the date of import separately by reference to the bill of lading or shipping bill, and that definition governs which policy notification applies. Since the respondents admitted the notification was not retrospective, and the goods had already been dispatched and arrived before its publication, the Court directed their release and allowed the writ petition.