Beneficial settlement scheme extends to co-noticees where appeal remains pending, treating adjudication as continuing until finality.

The Kar Vivad Samadhan Scheme and the Removal of Difficulties Order were construed together to determine that "pending adjudication" includes proceedings pending in appeal, because an appeal is a continuation of the original proceeding. On that reading, co-noticee partners who had been issued show cause notices in the same matter could claim the scheme's benefit even though the original adjudication had been completed. The resulting penalty under Rule 209A was therefore unsustainable, as a beneficial settlement in favour of the declarant extended to the other noticees.

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Issues: Whether partners, as co-noticees, were entitled to the benefit of the Kar Vivad Samadhan Scheme and the Removal of Difficulties Order notwithstanding that the show cause notice had been adjudicated and appeals were pending, and whether the penalty imposed on them under Rule 209A could be sustained.

Analysis: The Scheme and the Removal of Difficulties Order were read together to determine the scope of the expression "pending adjudication". The governing principle applied was that an appeal is a continuation of the original proceedings and that proceedings remain pending until finality is reached. The Court accepted the interpretation that the benefit of a settlement in favour of the declarant extends to other persons on whom show cause notices were issued in the same matter, and that restricting such benefit only to cases pending before the original adjudicating authority would be inconsistent with the object of the Scheme and discriminatory in effect.

Conclusion: The co-noticee partners were entitled to the benefit of the Scheme even though the matter stood adjudicated and appeals were pending, and the penalty imposed on them could not be sustained.

Final Conclusion: The writ petition succeeded, the impugned orders were set aside, and the petitioners were held not liable to penalty.

Ratio Decidendi: Where a beneficial settlement scheme provides that settlement in favour of the declarant shall be full and final in respect of other persons on whom show cause notices were issued in the same matter, the expression "pending adjudication" includes proceedings pending in appeal, because appeal is a continuation of the original proceedings.

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