Criminal conspiracy allegation can sustain prosecution despite foreign exchange adjudication objections and departmental penalty issues.

A criminal complaint remained maintainable where it alleged both foreign exchange contraventions and an independent offence of criminal conspiracy under section 120B of the Penal Code. Because conspiracy is triable only by a criminal court, the departmental authority under the foreign exchange regime could not finally dispose of that allegation. Arguments based on inconsistency between the earlier and later foreign exchange enactments, or on the absence of prior departmental adjudication, did not bar prosecution. Earlier departmental consideration of penalty inadequacy likewise did not defeat the complaint when the penal offence under the Penal Code stood independently pleaded.

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Issues: Whether the complaint was maintainable where the allegations included an offence under section 120B of the Indian Penal Code along with violations under the Foreign Exchange Regulation Act regime, and whether the absence or alleged inconsistency of departmental adjudication barred criminal prosecution.

Analysis: The complaint was not confined to alleged contraventions of the foreign exchange statute; it also alleged criminal conspiracy under section 120B of the Indian Penal Code. A charge of conspiracy is triable only by a criminal court and could not have been finally dealt with by the departmental authority under either the earlier or the later foreign exchange enactment. In that view, the arguments regarding inconsistency between the old and new foreign exchange regimes and the necessity of prior departmental adjudication did not defeat the complaint. The fact that the departmental authority had earlier considered penalty inadequacy did not alter the maintainability of the criminal complaint, particularly when the prosecution included an independent penal offence under the Penal Code.

Conclusion: The complaint was maintainable and the challenge to its dismissal failed.

Final Conclusion: The appeals failed because the criminal complaint could proceed on the conspiracy allegation notwithstanding objections based on the foreign exchange adjudicatory scheme.

Ratio Decidendi: Where a complaint includes an independent offence triable only by a criminal court, objections founded on the departmental adjudication scheme under the foreign exchange law do not bar the criminal complaint.

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