Pre-complaint opportunity under foreign exchange law need not include relied-upon documents when permission is within the party's own knowledge.

Section 61 of the Foreign Exchange Regulation Act requires only a preliminary opportunity to the person proceeded against to indicate whether Reserve Bank of India permission had been obtained for the foreign exchange transaction or payment. At that stage, the department is not required to furnish relied-upon documents, and the petitioner's knowledge of its own permission record was relevant. Because an earlier opportunity to inspect documents had not been used, the later request for documents was premature and could not stall the complaint process. The challenge to the pre-complaint opportunity notice therefore failed, and the notice was treated as valid.

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Issues: Whether the opportunity notice issued before lodging the criminal complaint was invalid for non-furnishing of the relied-upon documents and for giving only a short time to respond.

Analysis: The statutory scheme under section 61 of the Foreign Exchange Regulation Act requires only a preliminary opportunity to the person proceeded against to show whether permission of the Reserve Bank of India had been obtained for the foreign exchange transaction or payment. That requirement does not extend to supplying the department's documents at that stage. The existence of such permission is a matter within the petitioner's own knowledge, and the earlier opportunity to inspect documents had not been availed of. The subsequent request for documents was, therefore, premature and the complaint process could not be stalled on that ground.

Conclusion: The challenge to the opportunity notice failed and the notice was held valid.

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