How SC is using ‘right to speedy trial’ to award bail in money laundering cases
The court has granted bail in several high-profile money laundering cases since the accused had spent an ‘unreasonable’ period in prison without trial.
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Since July, the Supreme Court has granted or confirmed bail to a significant number of people accused in cases of money laundering. In these judgments, the court has invoked the “right to speedy trial” of the accused persons and criticised the Enforcement Directorate for delaying both the investigation as well as the trial.
This is significant given that the Modi government has used India’s draconion money-laundering law, the Prevention of Money Laundering Act, to target the Opposition.
More liberal bail conditions represents a shift in the Supreme Court’s jurisprudence on money laundering matters from July 2022, when in a landmark judgment it had endorsed the stringent bail conditions in the Prevention of Money Laundering Act.
However, the exact period without trial to qualify as “unreasonable” and thus be amenable to bail is entirely up to judicial discretion.
Illiberal history
Between October 2021 and March 2022, a three-judge bench of the Supreme Court comprising Justices AM Khanwilkar, Dinesh Maheshwari and CT Ravikumar heard a batch of long-standing petitions challenging certain provisions of the Prevention of Money Laundering Act.
One of the provisions called into question was Section 45, which stipulates that in order to be granted bail, an accused person must satisfy the court that there are “there are reasonable grounds for believing that he...
