PROMISSORY ESTOPPEL: A FADING ENIGMA IN FISCAL SPACE?

Abstract

Promissory estoppel is an equitable doctrine which has found roots in the Indian jurisprudence. Its application has witnessed a passionate contest in the discourse regarding the Government’s power to curtail or deny fiscal exemptions promised to the citizens. The article attempts to sketch the five-decades of judicial opinion, which reveals a flip-flop and discordant treatment meted to the doctrine. On one hand, we have decisions such as Indo- Afghan, Motilal Padampat, Nestle, Manuelson Hotels, etc., which mark the high points of the doctrine’s delineation and highlight its expansive scope. Conversely, the decisions in Kasinka Trading, Shrijee Sales, and more recent ones, such as Unicorn Industries, VVF, etc., reveal how the ‘public interest’ test overwhelmingly interjects and arrests the pragmatic application of this doctrine. This sketch also manifests the current trends which point towards dwindling fortunes of the doctrine. The underlying objective of the article is to picturise the struggles of a commentator attempting a coherent description of this doctrine and its concomitant variables. Presenting the prevailing dichotomy in the judicial approach to this doctrine, the article reinforces the imminent need for a categorical enunciation, lest the doctrine fades into obsolescence.