Sanjay Jhunjhunwala Vs Reserve Bank of India & Ors. (Calcutta High Court)
Calcutta High Court held that compounding application under Foreign Exchange Management Act, 1999 cannot be maintained post completion of adjudication process. Accordingly, appeal failed and hereby dismissed.
Facts- The present appeal challenges an order passed by a learned Single Judge on 1st April, 2025, dismissing the Writ Petition filed by the appellant herein. The primary prayer in the Writ Petition was that the writ petitioner be permitted to renew the compounding application made by him, thereby quashing the rejection of the compounding application on 11th September, 2024.
The conspectus of the dispute in the present appeal, as in the Writ Petition, is extremely limited and relates only to the issue: whether a compounding application can be entertained after the order of adjudication had been passed by the competent authority.
Conclusion- In this particular case, the compounding application has been made at a stage when the adjudication process has been completed. Thus, the question of admission of guilt of the contravention complained of, by the errant person, the sine qua non for a compounding application, is quite redundant, as he had already been found guilty of the contravention of the provisions of the Act and the Regulations.
