SC: Tough PMLA bail conditions can't override accused's right

NEW DELHI: SC has said that stringent bail conditions set under special laws such as PMLA cannot override rights granted by the Constitution, holding prolonged incarceration of an undertrial violates the fundamental right to speedy trial.A bench of Justices Aravind Kumar and Vipul M Pancholi said an accused could not be kept in custody till completion of trial and held that the accused was entitled to bail in case of delay in trial despite the stringent bail conditions under the anti-money laundering law.Section 45 of PMLA prescribes twin conditions for grant of bail.PMLA accused can't be in jail till trial ends, says SCThe PMLA section says no accused shall be released on bail unless the public prosecutor has been given an opportunity to oppose the application for such release, and the court is satisfied that there are reasonable grounds for believing that he is not guilty of such offence and that he is not likely to commit any offence while on bail.

The second condition puts the onus on an accused to convince the court that he is not guilty.The bench, however, said, "The twin conditions under Section 45 of PMLA cannot override the constitutional safeguards under Article 21 of the Constitution, as has been held in the case of Manish Sisodia vs Directorate of Enforcement. Prolonged incarceration, if allowed to continue, will set at naught the constitutional safeguards extended to accused persons."

The court granted bail to an accused who was allegedly involved in money laundering of over Rs 6,210 crore. ED said the accused had created 62 shell companies, 34 people were made dummy directors and 20 companies were manned by his relatives who contributed to the offence. He was arrested in Dec 2024.Granting him relief, the bench said, "We are of the opinion that the culmination of the trial is a time-consuming process, since the trial court will have to go through documents running into thousands of pages and examine around 98 witnesses.

The appellant must not be subjected to the rigours of custody as long as the trial is pending. Hence, the appellant must be released on bail, subject to furnishing of bail bonds to the satisfaction of the trial court and subject to such other terms and conditions as may be imposed by it.

"The bench admitted that economic offences were very serious as they impacted the financial fabric of the country but said the rights of accused too have to be protected."In a bail matter, especially in serious offences, the job of a court is to balance the rights of the state with those of the arrestee. In special laws such as PMLA, the conditions for granting bail are stringent, and the circumstances in which bail can be granted are rare, for the simple reason that economic offences of a large magnitude punch a hole through the financial fabric of the country, causing a top-down ripple effect into the entire ecosystem, resulting in large consequences for most of the population.

That is the justification for making the provisions of PMLA stringent. In the same breath, sight must not be lost of the fact that the institutions have a duty to expeditiously investigate the cases. Process must not be turned into a punishment unto itself," the court said.The bench referred to its earlier verdict in the Manish Sisodia case in which it was held that prolonged incarceration before being pronounced guilty of an offence should not be permitted to become punishment without trial, and keeping the appellant behind bars for an unlimited period of time in the hope of speedy completion of trial would deprive him of his fundamental right to liberty under Article 21 of the Constitution.