F V ARUL Vs. S K MUKHARJEE

JUDGEMENT

(1.) The hearing stems from an application under section 482 Cr. PC filed by the petitioner, praying for setting aside the order dated 15.03.2004 passed by the learned Metropolitan Magistrate, 9th Court, Calcutta and also for quashing the proceeding being Complaint Case No. 2415/02 under section 56 read with sections 64(2)/68 of the Foreign Exchange Regulation Act, 1973.

(2.) M/s. Greenways Shipping Agencies Pvt. Ltd. which is the sole agent in India of Uniglory Marine Corporation, Taipai, Taiwan, having branch offices in all the major ports including Calcutta and Cochin, handles export/import. At the beginning of 1997 S.S.K. Exports Ltd. booked 14 x 40' and 1 x 20' containers for destination Moscow. While enroute, the said exporter S.S.K. Exports requested four times in writing for diverting the containers to Dubai instead of Moscow and M/s. Greenways Shipping under the Carriage of Goods by Sea Act was bound to comply with it without knowledge that the said S.S.K. Exports made the exports under a scheme "Exports of goods and Services against payment of trade credit granted by erstwhile Soviet Union". The said S.S.K. Exports claimed benefits and received the same for having made the exports under the scheme to Moscow whereas the goods instead of going to Moscow had gone to the hard currency area of Dubai.

(3.) The Enforcement Department after investigation started adjudication proceeding under section 51 of the Act, and the notice was issued amongst others to the petitioners asking them to show cause as to why penalty will not be imposed upon them. The Special Director as an adjudicating authority after full analysis of all the materials collected during investigation found the petitioners not in day-to-day management of the Company, that they were not even aware of the subject matter of the said show cause notice that the entire transaction took place without their knowledge and that the contravention was made by the Company's branches in Cochin and Calcutta, for which Shri M.K.M. Nair Mani and Shri P. Sengupta were responsible and thus by order dated 21.05.2003 exonerated the petitioners from all the charges.