Preserved appellate rights under repeal must reach the corresponding FEMA forum for FERA adjudication orders.

On repeal and re-enactment, proceedings saved under FERA carried forward the corresponding right of appeal under FEMA. Section 49 of FEMA preserved actions taken under the repealed regime and could not be construed to extinguish that vested appellate remedy. The appellate scheme under FEMA therefore had to be read so that appeals from adjudication orders of the Assistant Director or Deputy Director under FERA were routed to the corresponding forum, namely the Special Director (Appeals), rather than left without a remedy. A construction that denied such appeals was rejected because it would nullify the saved right of appeal.

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Issues: Whether appeals against adjudication orders passed by the Assistant Director or Deputy Director of Enforcement under the repealed Foreign Exchange Regulation Act, 1973, read with section 49 of the Foreign Exchange Management Act, 1999, were maintainable before the Special Director (Appeals) or only before the Appellate Tribunal.

Analysis: The repeal of FERA by FEMA preserved proceedings initiated within the saving period and preserved the substantive right of appeal arising from those proceedings. Section 49 of FEMA abolished the FERA Appellate Board and saved actions taken under the repealed Act by deeming them to have been taken under the corresponding provisions of FEMA. FEMA then created two appellate forums: section 17 for orders of Assistant Director or Deputy Director of Enforcement and section 19 for orders of other Adjudicating Authorities. A construction that confined section 17 to orders passed only under FEMA would leave no appellate forum for appeals arising from FERA proceedings and would destroy the preserved right of appeal, which could not be accepted. The reference in section 19 to Adjudicating Authorities other than those in section 17 therefore excludes only the higher authorities mentioned in that scheme and not orders of Assistant Director or Deputy Director under FERA.

Conclusion: Appeals against adjudication orders passed by the Assistant Director or Deputy Director under FERA were held to be maintainable before the Special Director (Appeals), and the contrary orders of dismissal were set aside.

Ratio Decidendi: On repeal and re-enactment, preserved appeals must be routed to the corresponding forum created by the new statute, and a saving provision cannot be construed so as to extinguish a vested appellate remedy.

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