Supreme Court declines bail under money laundering act

Supreme Court declines bail under money laundering act

Asks parties involved to decide and enumerate the clarification they sought

The Supreme Court has struck down the two conditions for granting bail under the Prevention of Money Laundering Act (PMLA).

A bench comprising Justice Sanjay Kishan Kaul and Justice M M Sundresh has passed detailed guidelines regarding the grant of bail to the accused on the filing of the charge sheet. The accused were not arrested during the course of the investigation.

As agreeable to the Additional Solicitor General, S V Raju and a senior advocate, Sidharth Luthra, the bench set out two requisite conditions for the application of the guidelines. One, not being arrested during the investigation and, two, co-operating throughout the investigation process, including appearing before the investigating officer whenever called.

"We are putting a caution that merely by categorizing certain offences as economic offences, which may be non-cognizable, it does not mean giving a different meaning to our order. Our intention was to ease the process of bail," the court observed.

The bench said that the parties had stated they would do "some fine-tuning required to give meaning to the intent of our 2021 order."

It further said that the ASG had stated that an amendment was made, which was a pending challenge to be considered by the bench. Elucidating on its intention to encourage grant of bail, the bench asked the parties involved in the matter to collectively decide and enumerate the clarification they sought from the court.