Retrospective applicability of offences:

A question that arises is whether offences can be made applicable retrospectively. Article 20(1) of the Constitution specifically says that no person shall be convicted of any offence except for violation of law in force at the time of commission of the act charged as an offence. Therefore, if at the time of commission of the act, there was no offence, by a subsequent legislative amendment, that very act cannot be made an offence. In J.K. Spinning and Weaving Mills Ltd. v. UOI – 1987 (32) E.L.T. 234, the Supreme Court has held that it would be against principles of legal jurisprudence to impose a penalty on a person or to confiscate his goods for an act or omission which was lawful at the time when such act was performed or omission made, but subsequently made unlawful by virtue of any provision of law.