Constitutional courts can't allow PMLA provisions to become ED's tools: SC

The Supreme Court on Thursday said constitutional courts cannot allow provisions of Prevention of Money Laundering Act to become instruments in the hands of the Enforcement Directorate to continue incarceration for a long time. The top court said when the trial of the complaint under PMLA is likely to prolong beyond reasonable limits, the constitutional courts will have to consider exercising their powers to grant bail. "The reason is that section 45(1)(ii) (of PMLA) does not confer power on the State to detain an accused for an unreasonably long time, especially when there is no possibility of trial concluding within a reasonable time. "What a reasonable time is will depend on the provisions under which the accused is being tried and other factors. One of the most relevant factors is the duration of the minimum and maximum sentence for the offence," a bench of Justices Abhay S Oka and Augustine George Masih said. The observations of the apex court came while granting bail to forme