The Supreme Court has stayed the proceedings initiated by the Maharashtra government against Videocon Industries, its chairman Venugopal Dhoot and other top officials for alleged violation of the Foreign Exchange Regulation Act (Fera).
A bench headed by Justice Anil Dave stayed the Bombay High Court?s order of last October that allowed criminal proceedings to continue against the company and its top brass.
Seeking a stay on the HC judgment, counsel Siddharth Bhatnagar, appearing for Videocon, argued that when the adjudication proceedings by the department exonerated a person on merits, criminal prosecution on the same set of facts and circumstances cannot be allowed to continue. Besides, the HC erred in concluding that though goods were shipped from Korea and Japan to Russia, the same would amount to ?export? within the meaning of Fera, he said.
Videocon further argued that due to political turmoil and disintegrity of Russia, many customers who exported the goods from India, have suffered heavy loss and, therefore, the RBI has come out with the scheme of reimbursement.
