Admitted receipt and unrebutted findings sustained penalty for foreign exchange contravention under FERA

Penalty for contravention of section 9(1)(b) of the Foreign Exchange Regulation Act, 1973 was upheld because the appellant admitted receipt of money through an unknown person on her husband's instructions and accepted the correctness of her recorded statement without retracting it. The adjudicating authority's factual findings were not effectively controverted, and the proceedings were decided on the existing record. In that setting, the Tribunal found no basis to interfere with the penalty and rejected the appeal. The separate contention based on section 164 of the Code of Criminal Procedure, 1973 was not examined further.

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Issues: Whether the penalty for contravention of section 9(1)(b) of the Foreign Exchange Regulation Act, 1973 was liable to be interfered with in view of the appellant's admitted receipt of money and her failure to controvert the findings.

Analysis: The appellant admitted receiving Rs. 1 lakh through an unknown person on the instructions of her husband, a non-resident Indian, and also admitted the truth of her statement recorded on 31-3-1993 without retracting it. The proceedings were sought to be decided on the existing record, and no effective challenge was made to the factual findings recorded by the adjudicating authority. In these circumstances, the Tribunal found no need to decide the separate contention based on section 164 of the Code of Criminal Procedure, 1973.

Conclusion: The penalty was upheld and the appeal was rejected.

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