2017 (7) TMI 1056

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....hort 'the PMLA'). While granting bail, the High Court has failed to comply with the requirement of condition (ii)of Section 45 of the PMLA. This Court in Gautam Kundu vs. Directorate of Enforcement (Prevention of Money Laundering Act), Government of India through Manoj Kumar, Assistant Director, Eastern Region [(2015)16 SCC 1] has laid down thus: "26. The learned Solicitor General submitted that Section 45 of PMLA refers only to the term "Special Court" and therefore has to be given restricted meaning. According to him, PMLA is a "Special Law" applicable to the subject of money-laundering, and deals with economic offenders and white collar criminals. The object of PMLA is to prevent money-laundering and to provide for confi....

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.... with the offence of money laundering and Parliament has enacted this law as per commitment of the country to the United Nations General Assembly. PMLA is a special statute enacted by the Parliament for dealing with money laundering. Section 5 of the Code of Criminal Procedure, 1973 clearly lays down that the provisions of the Code of Criminal Procedure will not affect any special statute or any local law. In other words, the provisions of any special statute will prevail over the general provisions of the Code of Criminal Procedure in case of any conflict. 29. Section 45 of the PMLA starts with a non obstante clause which indicates that the provisions laid down in Section 45 of PMLA will have overriding effect on the general provi....

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....s proved, the Authority or the Court shall presume that proceeds of crime are involved in money laundering and the burden to prove that the proceeds of crime are not involved, lies on the appellant. xxx 34.We note that admittedly the complaint is filed against the appellant on the allegations of committing the offence punishable under Section 4 of PMLA. The contention raised on behalf of the appellant that no offence under Section 24 of the SEBI Act is made out against the appellant, which is a scheduled offence under PMLA, needs to be considered from the materials collected during the investigation by the respondents. There is no order as yet passed by a competent court of law, holding that no offence is made out against the ap....