TaxTMI 
TaxTMI 
2026 (2) TMI 1215
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....overnment of India, Chennai. The Ld. Adjudicating Authority (AA) imposed the cumulative penalty of Rs. 60,00,000/- on the Appellant Company comprising of the following: a. Rs. 30,00,000/- for the contravention of Section 7 and Section 8 of the Foreign Exchange Management Act, 1999 (FEMA) read with Regulations 8, 9 (1) & 13 of the Foreign Exchange Management (Export of Goods and Services) Regulations, 2000 and Regulation 3 of the Foreign Exchange Management (Realisation, Repatriation & Surrender of Foreign Exchange) Regulations, 2000 to the extent of Rs. 4,44,39,864/-. b. Rs. 30,00,000/- for the contravention of Section 3 (b) of FEMA to the extent of Rs. 4,44,39,864/-. The individual Appellants Shri N. Sreenivas and Smt. N Sunitha, who were the Directors of the Appellant Company were penalized Rs. 3,00,000/- each for the aforementioned contraventions in terms of Section 42(1) of FEMA. 2. This Tribunal vide Order dated 28.11.2024 had directed the Appellant Company and the individual Appellants to make pre- deposit of Rs. 6,00,000/- and Rs. 30,000/- each within sixty days of the Order. The individual Appellants made the pre-deposits of Rs. 30,000/- each. Howeve....
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....sub-section (1) and the Registrar shall, on receipt of such application, cause a public notice to be issued in the prescribed manner: Provided that in the case of a company regulated under a special Act, approval of the regulatory body constituted or established under that Act shall also be obtained and enclosed with the application. (3) Nothing in sub-section (2) shall apply to a company registered under section 8. (4) A notice issued under sub-section (1) or sub-section (2) shall be published in the prescribed manner and also in the Official Gazette for the information of the general public. (5) At the expiry of the time mentioned in the notice, the Registrar may, unless cause to the contrary is shown by the company, strike off its name from the register of companies, and shall publish notice thereof in the Official Gazette, and on the publication in the Official Gazette of this notice, the company shall stand dissolved. (6) The Registrar, before passing an order under sub-section (5), shall satisfy himself that sufficient provision has been made for the realisation of all amount due to the company and for the payment or discharge of i....
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....person appealing against the order of the Adjudicating Authority or the Special Director (Appeals) levying any penalty, shall while filing the appeal, deposit the amount of such penalty with such authority as may be notified by the Central Government: Provided further that where in any particular case, the Appellate Tribunal is of the opinion that the deposit of such penalty would cause undue hardship to such person, the Appellate Tribunal may dispense with such deposit subject to such conditions as it may deem fit to impose so as to safeguard the realisation of penalty." In view of the failure of the Appellant Company to comply with the statutory provisions of Section 19(1) of FEMA, we dismiss the Appeal No. FPA-FE-110/CHN/2018 filed by M/s Skanda Marines Pvt. Ltd. 6. In view of the imposition of penalties in the Impugned Order of Rs. 3,00,000/- each on the Appellants Shri N. Sreenivas and Smt. N. Sunitha, we reproduce paragraph 7.9 of the Impugned Order: "With regard to the imposition of Penalty on Shri N. Sreenivas and Smt. N. Sunitha, Directors of M/s Skanda Marines P Limited, I intend to rely on the statement dated 6.8.2013, wherein it is clearly eviden....
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.... mens rea. Words like "willful", "deliberately", "intentionally" etc. are missing. The Hon'ble Supreme Court in the Judgment dated 23.05.2006 in the matter of The Chairman, SEBI v. Shriram Mutual Fund, [(2006) 5 SCC 361] has held: "35. In our considered opinion, penalty is attracted as soon as the contravention of the statutory obligation as contemplated by the Act and the Regulations is established and hence the intention of the parties committing such violation becomes wholly irrelevant. A breach of civil obligation which attracts penalty in the nature of fine under the provisions of the Act and the Regulations would immediately attract the levy of penalty irrespective of the fact whether contravention must be made by the defaulter with guilty intention or not. We also further held that unless the language of the statute indicates the need to establish the presence of mens rea, it is wholly unnecessary to ascertain whether such a violation was intentional or not." 8. The Judgment (supra) in the matter of SEBI cited the Judgment in Director of Enforcement vs. MCTM Corporation Pvt. Ltd. and Ors. [MANU/SC/0300/1996] wherein even for FERA 1947 it was held that the contrav....