9911796707
TMI Blog2005 (11) TMI 475X X X X Extracts X X X X X X X X Extracts X X X X ..... n Exchange Manual, 1993. The allegation against the respondent was that he is a Non-resident Indian having business concerns in United Kingdom. That during the period 1993-95 he visited India on several occasions and brought certain amount of foreign exchange in Sterling Ponds which he disclosed in the Currency Declaration Forms (CDFs) before the Air Custom Authorities. However, pursuant to the said CDFs, the respondent deposited the foreign exchange in Sterling Ponds Page 2174 in the Oriental Bank of Commerce, Bombay which was in far excess to the tune of Sterling Pond 4,22,515.00 of the amount of foreign exchange declared by him in CDFs. On inquiries undertaken by the Enforcement Department, it was revealed that the respondent had forged 8 CDFs by interpolating certain figures and words in the amount of foreign exchange. According to the Enforcement Directorate, the respondent has committed an offence under Section 8(1) of FERA by acquiring the foreign exchange in India in an unauthorised manner without the previous general or special permission of the RBI. The show cause notice also proposed to confiscate the amount of Sterling Ponds 4,22,515.00. Respondent contested the show ca ..... X X X X Extracts X X X X X X X X Extracts X X X X ..... eal, as framed and filed, is not maintainable under the provisions of Section 54 of FERA firstly, because an appeal under Section 54 lies only on questions of law and secondly, that the proceedings in revision filed by the Enforcement Directorate before the Appellate Tribunal under Section 52(4) of FERA were misconceived and not Page 2175 maintainable and was filed almost after one year of the order passed by the Adjudicating Authority. In this connection he has pointed out that neither the memorandum of appeal has set out any questions of law, sought to be raised in the present appeal nor any questions of law have been formulated by the Court and, therefore, it should be presumed that there are no questions of law involved in this appeal or the appeal primarily seeks to assail the concurrent findings of fact reached by the Adjudicating Authority and the Appellate Tribunal for Foreign Exchange. To buttress his submissions, Mr.Rohtagi, learned senior counsel for the respondent has relied upon a few decisions rendered by the Apex Court and by this Court. The first being the case of Narayanan v. Kumaran and Ors., , where the Court considered the scope of the powers of High Court in ex ..... X X X X Extracts X X X X X X X X Extracts X X X X ..... nding of the Tribunal can be interfered with. The finding may also be interfered with if it be found to be so unreasonable that no person acting judicially and properly instructed as to the relevant law could have arrived at it. None of the circumstances justifying Page 2176 interference with the finding of fact of the Tribunal has been shown to exist in this case. In the absence of any such circumstance, the High Court in our view was not justified in interfering with the finding of fact of the Tribunal. The fact that the High Court on appreciation of evidence would have arrived at a conclusion of fact different from that of the Tribunal did not warrant interference with the finding of the Tribunal. 6. In yet another decision in Omar Salay Mohamed Sait. v. Commissioner of Income-Tax, Madras, (1959) ITR 151, the Supreme Court held as under: We are aware that the Income-Tax Appellate Tribunal is a fact finding Tribunal and if it arrives at its own conclusions of fact after due consideration of the evidence before it this court will not interfere. It is necessary, however, that every fact for and against the assessed must have been considered with due care and the Tribunal mu ..... X X X X Extracts X X X X X X X X Extracts X X X X ..... ed Documents from the Office of the Govt. Examiner Page 2177 of Questioned Documents, Hyderabad as also the impugned orders and various other documents in his attempt to show that the order passed by the Adjudicating authority, as affirmed by the Appellate Tribunal, are based on no evidence or a very improper appreciation of the evidence and material brought on record and by discarding certain important evidence and material brought on record while at the same time taking into consideration certain external/ inadmissible/ irrelevant and inadmissible material for recording a wholly incorrect and perverse finding. This Court has gone into the said record. On the basis of the report of the Examiner of Questioned Documents, it will appear to this Court that forgery was committed by the respondent in the eight Currency Declaration Forms so as to add the figure of '1' before the figures of the amount and adding the word one hundred and before the actual amount in words. That would show that the foreign currency in Sterling Pond which was deposited by the respondent in the Oriental Bank of Commerce was not commensurate with the foreign currency brought by him at the time of his ..... X X X X Extracts X X X X X X X X Extracts X X X X
|
