NEW DELHI: Observing that stringent bail provisions under the Prevention of Money Laundering Act cannot take away the power of courts to protect the right to life and liberty of the accused, the Supreme Court on Wednesday said bail can be granted on the ground of delay in trial in cases relating to money laundering as a person cannot be kept in jail indefinitely.
While hearing the bail plea of a person who has been in custody for 18 months in an illegal sand mining case in Jharkhand, a bench of Justices Sanjiv Khanna and Dipankar Datta said Section 45 of PMLA, which says that no person shall be granted bail without hearing the public prosecutor and if there are reasonable grounds for believing that he is guilty of such offence, “could not take away the power of courts to grant bail in case of delay in trial”.
“It is related to Article 12 of the Constitution. I have already held this in the Manish Sisodia case that if there is undue incarceration, then court can grant bail and Section 45 (of PMLA) does not come in the way,” Justice Khanna observed.
While hearing the bail plea of a person who has been in custody for 18 months in an illegal sand mining case in Jharkhand, a bench of Justices Sanjiv Khanna and Dipankar Datta said Section 45 of PMLA, which says that no person shall be granted bail without hearing the public prosecutor and if there are reasonable grounds for believing that he is guilty of such offence, “could not take away the power of courts to grant bail in case of delay in trial”.
“It is related to Article 12 of the Constitution. I have already held this in the Manish Sisodia case that if there is undue incarceration, then court can grant bail and Section 45 (of PMLA) does not come in the way,” Justice Khanna observed.
The court, however, allowed govt time to respond to the questions raised before deciding the matter.
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