TaxTMI 
TaxTMI 
2021 (6) TMI 413
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....ppeal preferred by the Enforcement Directorate, Kolkata, through the Assistant Director, purportedly under section 26 of the Prevention of Money Laundering Act, 2002 (the "PML Act", for short) was maintainable. 2. By an order dated 9th October, 2019, the learned Adjudicating Authority, among other things, held that the defendants therein did not commit the scheduled offences or generate proceeds of crime and hence, the complaint filed against them was dismissed and the provisional attachment order was also not confirmed. Being aggrieved by the order passed by the learned Adjudicating Authority under Section 8 of the PML Act, the Enforcement Directorate, Kolkata filed an appeal through the Assistant Director. The present appellant contended....
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....relied on the case of Amarjit Singh alias Billa, 2009 SCC Online Del 995. It failed to consider that in that case the appeal was filed under Section 54 of the Foreign Exchange Regulation Act, 1973, which was not in pari materia with Section 26 of the PML Act. Moreover, in Amarjit Singh (supra), the appeal was filed by the Union of India through the Director of Enforcement. The Union of India was sui juris and section 79 of the Code of Civil Procedure provided for initiation of litigation by the Central government in that matter. The learned Tribunal further erred in placing reliance on the decision of the Hon'ble Apex Court in the case of Sugandhi (Dead) by LRs, (2020) 10 SCC 706, in as much as the observations made therein were because....
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....the object of the said Act which was a penal statute and provided for imprisonment of the accused. The adjudication regarding properties involved in proceeds of crime had a different forum, but the said forums were only assisting preservation of proceeds of crime. The said provisions have to be read with Section 48 that specifies the authorities under the said Act. In terms of Section 68, when the proceedings initiated by the Enforcement Directorate were in consonance with the objects of the said Act, the same could not be called into question on account of some technicalities. Moreover, Section 71 gives an overriding power and declares that the provisions of this Act shall have force notwithstanding anything inconsistent therewith containe....
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....1) of the PML Act provides as follows: "Save as otherwise provided in sub-section (3), the Director or any person aggrieved by an order made by the Adjudicating Authority under this Act, may prefer an appeal to the Appellate Tribunal". 8. Therefore, even as per Section 26(1) of the said Act, not only the Director but also an aggrieved person may file such an appeal. Thus, it gives a rather expansive definition of an 'appellant'. 9. First, let us explore whether the Enforcement Directorate per se has a right to file an appeal under section 26 of the PML Act even without making use of the expression 'an aggrieved person'. 10. The Enforcement Directorate happens to be the specialised financial Investigating Agency under th....
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....tion 68 of the PML Act espouses a spirit of pragmatism and shuns thwarting actions taken under the said Act merely on the excuse of technicalities. 14. It is germane to notice that although section 42 of the PML Act provides for an appeal by an aggrieved person, appeals galore are filed by the Directorate, even through the Assistant Director, and these are not shut out by Courts on the anvil of section 2 (s) of the Act. 15. Therefore, now we need to delve into the issue of whether the Enforcement Directorate could also invoke the locus of an 'aggrieved person' in filing an appeal under section 26 of the PML Act. 16. Section 2(s) of the PMLA Act, defining the word 'person', albeit by enumerating what it would include, does....
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....n. However, section 48 of the PML Act, as referred to above, squarely brings an aggrieved entity like the Enforcement Directorate within the ambit of a 'person' as described in section 2 (s) of the Act. 20. Therefore, on both the counts, the Enforcement Directorate should be competent to file an appeal under section 26 of the PML Act. 21. Now, so far as the decision in Opto Circuit India Limited (supra) is concerned, the facts are totally distinguishable from those of the present case. It only pertained to freezing of bank accounts. In any event, the broad ratio that if a statute prescribed doing of a thing in a particular manner, then it has to be done only in that manner, has not been departed from in this case. 22. The decisio....