{"id":31146,"date":"2024-10-21T18:06:30","date_gmt":"2024-10-21T12:36:30","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.nextias.com\/ca\/?p=31146"},"modified":"2024-10-21T18:06:31","modified_gmt":"2024-10-21T12:36:31","slug":"relief-under-article-21-superior-to-pmla-conditions","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.nextias.com\/ca\/current-affairs\/21-10-2024\/relief-under-article-21-superior-to-pmla-conditions","title":{"rendered":"Relief Under Article 21 Superior to PMLA Conditions"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<p><strong>Syllabus: GS2\/Polity and Governance<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n<h2 class=\"wp-block-heading\"><strong>Context<\/strong><\/h2>\n\n\n\n<ul class=\"wp-block-list\">\n<li>A Delhi court granted bail to AAP leader Satyendar Jain, under<strong> Article 21 <\/strong>of the Constitution, arrested in a money laundering case.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n\n\n\n<h2 class=\"wp-block-heading\"><strong>About<\/strong><\/h2>\n\n\n\n<ul class=\"wp-block-list\">\n<li>The Delhi court order highlighted that the constitutional conditions had a mitigating effect on the statutory conditions under <strong>Prevention of Money Laundering Act (PMLA) <\/strong>when liberty was at the core.<\/li>\n\n\n\n<li>The relief granted under<strong> Article 21 (right to life and personal liberty) <\/strong>of the Constitution pertaining to delay in trial and long incarceration is superior to the twin conditions under <strong>Section 45 <\/strong>of the <strong>PMLA.<\/strong>\n<ul class=\"wp-block-list\">\n<li>Article 21 applies irrespective of the nature of the crime.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n\n\n\n<figure class=\"wp-block-table\"><table class=\"has-background\" style=\"background-color:#fff2cc\"><tbody><tr><td><strong>Prevention of Money Laundering Act (PMLA) 2002\u00a0<\/strong><br>&#8211; It was enacted by Parliament of India under <strong>Article 253 of Constitution in 2002<\/strong> to prevent money laundering and provide for the confiscation of property derived from or involved in money laundering.<br>&#8211; PMLA and the Rules notified there under came into force with effect from<strong> 2005, <\/strong>and it was further <strong>amended in 2009 and in 2012.<\/strong><br><strong>Provisions:<\/strong><br>&#8211; <strong>Sec. 3 of PMLA defines the offense of money laundering<\/strong> as any process or activity connected with the proceeds of crime and projecting it as untainted property.<br>&#8211; <strong>Prescribe obligation: <\/strong>PMLA prescribes the obligation of banking companies, financial institutions and intermediaries for verification and maintenance of records of the identity of all its clients.\u00a0<br>&#8211; <strong>Empowerment of officers: <\/strong>PMLA empowers <strong>Directorate of Enforcement<\/strong> to carry out investigations in cases involving offense of money laundering and also to attach the property involved in money laundering.\u00a0<br>&#8211; <strong>Special Courts:<\/strong> It envisages the designation of one or more courts of sessions as Special Court to try the offenses punishable under PMLA.<br>&#8211; \u00a0<strong>Agreement for Central Government:<\/strong> It allows the Central Government to enter into an agreement with the Government of any country outside India for enforcing the provisions of the PMLA.<br><strong>Bail Provisions under PMLA<\/strong><br>&#8211; The twin conditions of bail under <strong>Section 45<\/strong> of the PMLA pose stringent thresholds for an accused.\u00a0<br>&#8211; <strong>For one, <\/strong>the person has to prove in court that he or she is prima facie innocent of the offense.\u00a0<br>&#8211; <strong>Secondly,<\/strong> the accused should be able to convince the judge he would not commit any offense while on bail.\u00a0<br>1. The burden of proof is entirely on the incarcerated accused.\u00a0<\/td><\/tr><\/tbody><\/table><\/figure>\n\n\n\n<h2 class=\"wp-block-heading\"><strong>Supreme Court\u2019s Take on the Law<\/strong><\/h2>\n\n\n\n<ul class=\"wp-block-list\">\n<li>The Supreme Court recently held that constitutional courts cannot allow provisions of the PMLA to become instruments in the hands of the <strong>Enforcement Directorate<\/strong> to continue incarceration for a long time.<\/li>\n\n\n\n<li><strong>To address concerns raised by ED<\/strong> regarding possible tampering with witnesses or evidence, the court imposed strict conditions on bail, including:\n<ul class=\"wp-block-list\">\n<li>regular appearance before the deputy director of ED;\u00a0<\/li>\n\n\n\n<li>appearance before the investigating officer of the scheduled offenses;\u00a0<\/li>\n\n\n\n<li>restraint against contacting any prosecution witnesses or victims related to the scheduled offenses;\u00a0<\/li>\n\n\n\n<li>full cooperation with the trial and a refrain from asking for adjournments.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n\n\n<div class=\"wp-block-image\">\n<figure class=\"aligncenter size-full is-resized\"><img data-dominant-color=\"b39d9e\" data-has-transparency=\"false\" loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" width=\"571\" height=\"574\" src=\"https:\/\/wp-images.nextias.com\/cdn-cgi\/image\/format=auto\/ca\/uploads\/2024\/10\/SC-knocks-back-on-law-jpg.webp\" alt=\"SC-knocks-back-on-law\" class=\"not-transparent wp-image-31147\" style=\"--dominant-color: #b39d9e; width:389px;height:auto\" srcset=\"https:\/\/wp-images.nextias.com\/cdn-cgi\/image\/format=auto\/ca\/uploads\/2024\/10\/SC-knocks-back-on-law-jpg.webp 571w, https:\/\/wp-images.nextias.com\/cdn-cgi\/image\/format=auto\/ca\/uploads\/2024\/10\/SC-knocks-back-on-law-298x300.webp 298w, https:\/\/wp-images.nextias.com\/cdn-cgi\/image\/format=auto\/ca\/uploads\/2024\/10\/SC-knocks-back-on-law-150x150.webp 150w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 571px) 100vw, 571px\" \/><\/figure>\n<\/div>\n\n\n<h2 class=\"wp-block-heading\"><strong>Conclusion<\/strong><\/h2>\n\n\n\n<ul class=\"wp-block-list\">\n<li>The court decision underscores the importance of preventing prolonged incarceration and delayed trials, balancing statutory conditions with constitutional rights.\u00a0<\/li>\n\n\n\n<li>Ultimately, the balance between law enforcement powers and individual rights remains a critical aspect of this legal framework, ensuring justice while safeguarding fundamental liberties.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n\n\n\n<p><strong>Source: <\/strong><a href=\"https:\/\/www.thehindu.com\/news\/cities\/Delhi\/relief-under-article-21-superior-to-pmla-conditions-court-while-granting-bail-to-jain\/article68772902.ece#:~:text=The%20relief%20granted\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\"><strong>TH<\/strong><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>A Delhi court granted bail to AAP leader Satyendar Jain, under Article 21 of the Constitution, arrested in a money laundering case.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":4,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[21],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-31146","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-current-affairs"],"acf":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.nextias.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/31146","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.nextias.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.nextias.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.nextias.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/4"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.nextias.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=31146"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/www.nextias.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/31146\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":31148,"href":"https:\/\/www.nextias.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/31146\/revisions\/31148"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.nextias.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=31146"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.nextias.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=31146"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.nextias.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=31146"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}