Overview
- Allowing Adani Power's appeal, the Court set aside a 2019 Gujarat High Court ruling that had denied broader relief against the levy on electricity cleared from the Mundra SEZ to the domestic market.
- The Bench held that no valid charging provision under the Customs Act authorized the duty on SEZ-to-DTA electricity, and said the State cannot retain amounts collected under an invalid impost.
- Successive notifications in 2010 and 2012 were found to have merely altered rates rather than creating a fresh legal basis for the levy, leaving the underlying illegality intact.
- The jurisdictional Commissioner of Customs was directed to verify claims and process refunds within eight weeks, with the Court cautioning against hyper-technical objections that could frustrate relief.
- Reinforcing judicial discipline, the Court said the 2019 Division Bench was bound to follow the Gujarat High Court’s 2015 declaration or refer the matter to a larger bench, and it noted the dispute arose from 2010 changes that sought retrospective effect to 2009.