Foreign Trade (Development and Regulation) Act,1992
3. Powers to make provisions relating to imports and exports.—
(1) The Central Government may, by Order published in the Official Gazette, make provision for the development and regulation of foreign trade by facilitating imports and increasing exports.
(2) The Central Government may also, by Order published in the Official Gazette, make provision for prohibiting , restricting or otherwise regulating, in all cases or in specified classes of cases and subject to such exceptions, if any , as may be made by or under the Order, the import or export of goods.
(3) All goods to which any Order under sub section (2) applies shall be deemed to be goods the import or export of which has been prohibited under section 11 of the Customs Act, 1962 (52 of 1962) and all the provisions of that Act shall have effect accordingly.
Comment : “5. It would, therefore, be clear that grant of license depends upon the policy prevailing as on the date of the grant of the license. The Court, therefore, would not bind the Government with a policy which was existing on the date of application as per previous policy. A prior decision would not bind the Government for all times to come. When the Government are satisfied that change in the policy was necessary in the public interest, it would be entitled to revise the policy and lay down new policy. The Court, therefore, would prefer to allow free play to the Government to evolve fiscal policy in the public interest and to act upon the same. Equally, the Government is left free to determine priorities in the matters of allocations or allotments or utilization of its finances in the public interest.”: P. T. R. Exports (Madras) Pvt. Ltd. v. Union of India, AIR 1996 SUPREME COURT 3461
