Independent review and appeal remedies under foreign trade law mean review cannot be refused solely for no appeal filed.

Under the Foreign Trade (Development & Regulation) Act, 1962, the review power and appellate remedy are distinct statutory routes: Section 15 provides an appeal against adjudicatory orders, while Section 16 separately authorises review of the correctness, legality or propriety of a decision or order. The availability of an appeal does not, by itself, bar review unless the statute expressly says so. Accordingly, rejection of a review application solely because no appeal had been filed was unsustainable, and the review application was maintainable without first exhausting the appeal remedy.

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Issues: Whether a review application under the Foreign Trade (Development & Regulation) Act, 1962 is maintainable without first filing an appeal, and whether rejection of the review on the ground that no appeal was filed is sustainable.

Analysis: The scheme of Sections 15 and 16 shows that appeal and review are distinct remedies. Section 15 provides for an appeal against orders of the adjudicating authority, while Section 16 empowers the Central Government or the Director General to review the correctness, legality or propriety of the decision or order. The availability of the appellate remedy does not bar invocation of the review power. A rejection of the review petition solely on the ground that an appeal had not been filed therefore does not accord with the statutory scheme.

Conclusion: The review application was held maintainable without exhausting the appeal remedy, and the order rejecting it for want of an appeal was unsustainable.

Ratio Decidendi: Where the statute creates independent appellate and review powers, the existence of an appeal does not preclude exercise of the review jurisdiction unless the statute expressly so provides.

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