The owners of IPL team Rajasthan Royals (RR) got a major reprieve as the Bombay High Court, on December 14, 2023, has upheld an order passed by a tribunal reducing the penalty imposed on them from Rs 98 crore to Rs 15 crore for alleged financial irregularities.
In 2013, the ED imposed a penalty of Rs 98.35 crores on the owners of the RR team after its preliminary probe revealed alleged irregularities under provisions of the Foreign Exchange Management Act (FEMA).
The Rajasthan Royals team owners filed an appeal against this before the appellate tribunal which held the ED’s order as unreasonable and reduced the amount to Rs 15 crore.
A division bench of Justices K R Shriram and Neela Gokhale in its judgment on Wednesday dismissed an appeal filed by the Enforcement Directorate (ED) challenging the July 11, 2019 order passed by the tribunal.
The high court in its order noted the tribunal arrived at its conclusion based on evidence and analysis of the same.
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“The findings are far from being perverse. Thus, no question of law arises in the case. We find that no justification has been recorded by the special director (ED) to impose maximum penalty as opposed to the tribunal having considered relevant material has interfered and reduced the penalty. We find that the special director has completely failed to apply the doctrine of proportionality while choosing to impthe ose maximum penalty on the respondents (owners),” the High Court order stated.
The high court highlighted in its ruling that the tribunal found no loss to the public purse and that the remittances had arrived in India and remained in the nation. The order also stated that the tribunal has found no justification in the order passed by the ED’s special director for impoa sing maximum penalty on the owners.
“This is not a case where any foreign exchange has gone out of India. Also, the remittances were utilized for the purposes for which they were intended and there is not even an allegation of utilization of the money for extraneous purposes,” it said.
(PTI inputs)
