Accrued right of appeal remains protected where a statutory amendment narrows pending appellate remedies.

An amendment to Section 15Z of the SEBI Act, 1992 that shifted the second appeal from the High Court to the Supreme Court, and limited it to questions of law, was held not to apply to pending appeals arising from SAT orders passed before the change. The right of appeal was treated as a vested substantive right that accrues when the lis begins before the first forum. Because the amending law contained no express or implied indication of retrospective operation, and the general savings principle in Section 6 of the General Clauses Act applied, appeals already filed before the amendment remained governed by the unamended provision. The pre-amendment appellate route therefore continued for those pending matters.

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Issues: Whether the amendment to Section 15Z of the Securities and Exchange Board of India Act, 1992, substituting an appeal to the Supreme Court on questions of law for the earlier appeal to the High Court on questions of fact or law, applied to appeals arising from Securities Appellate Tribunal orders passed before the amendment.

Analysis: The right of appeal was held to be a vested substantive right accruing when the lis commenced before the first forum. The amended Section 15Z did not merely alter the forum; it also curtailed the scope of the second appeal by restricting it to questions of law only. In the absence of an express or implied contrary intention in the amending legislation, and in light of the general savings principle under Section 6 of the General Clauses Act, 1897, pending appeals initiated before the amendment remained governed by the unamended provision.

Conclusion: The appeals filed before the High Court before the amendment were maintainable, and the amended Section 15Z did not divest the accrued appellate right in those pending matters.

Final Conclusion: The challenge to the High Court's view failed, and the pre-amendment appellate route continued to govern the pending appeals that had already arisen before the statutory change.

Ratio Decidendi: An amendment that curtails an accrued right of appeal is not retrospective unless the legislature clearly so provides, and pending proceedings are saved by the unamended law where the lis had already commenced.

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