Receipt of a cheque drawn on an NRE account in Indian currency,...

Receipt of a cheque drawn on an NRE account in Indian currency, without any dealing in foreign exchange or unauthorised conversion, did not amount to a contravention under FERA. The Court held that Section 8(1) applies only where there is acquisition, borrowing, transfer, lending or exchange of foreign exchange otherwise than through an authorised dealer, and that neither the cheque nor the admitted facts satisfied that description. Section 8(2) also did not apply because there was no transaction converting Indian currency into foreign currency, or vice versa, at an unauthorised rate. The penalty was therefore unsustainable, and the objection based on alleged suppression of an earlier prima facie criminal order was rejected.

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