2017 (4) TMI 1

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....E, CJ AND BUDIHAL RB, JJ. For the Petitioner : Sri Sudhir Nandrajog, Senior Advocate a/w Sri Mayank Jain, Advocate For the Respondent : Sri Krishna S Dixit, ASG, for R-2 to 4; R-1 is served and unrepresented ORDE By consent of the learned advocates appearing for the parties, all these writ petitions are taken up for hearing together, as similar questions of law are involved in these writ petitions, in order to avoid a conflicting judicial opinion. We are also informed that facts are, almost, identical. However, for the sake of convenience, we are dealing with the facts in relation to Writ Petition No 5962 of 2016. 2. Writ Petition No 5962 of 2016 is filed challenging the action of the authorities in lodging and enforcing o....

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....prior to the coming into operation of the amendment to the PML Act. 6. Section 2(p) of the PML Act defines that 'money laundering' has the meaning assigned to it in Section 3. Section 2(u) provides that the 'proceeds of crime' means any property derived or obtained directly or indirectly, by any person as a result of criminal activity relating to a scheduled offence or the value of any such property. Section 2(y) defines the 'schedule offence' as (i) the offences specified under Part A of the Schedule; or (ii) the offences specified under Part B of the Schedule, if the total value involved in such offences is thirty lakh rupees or more; or (iii) the offences specified under Part C of the Schedule. 7. Mr Sudhir Nandrajog, further, draw....

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....out jurisdiction and are liable to be quashed. As we have, already, held that the writ petitioner cannot be prosecuted for the offences alleged, as they are not the scheduled offences under the PML Act. Those offences under the Mines and Geology (Development and Regulation) Act, 1957, the Forest (Conservation) Act, 1980, the Indian Penal Code and the Prevention of Corruption Act, 1988, were included in the PML Act declaring them as scheduled offences only with effect from June 1, 2009. Hence, the Enforcement Directorate could not have invoked the provisions of the PML Act with retrospective effect. 12. The petitioner cannot be tried and punished for the offences under the PML Act when the offences were not inserted in the schedule of off....