The Supreme Court on Wednesday came down heavily on the Centre for arguing that women are not entitled to any special treatment for grant of bail in money-laundering offences despite the PMLA providing an exemption.
“There is a clear attempt on the part of the government of India to see that bail is denied by hook or crook.... We will not tolerate conduct on the part of the Union of India to make submissions contrary to the statute,” a bench headed by Justice Abhay S. Oka told solicitor-general Tushar Mehta, who apologised for the earlier erroneous submission made by additional solicitor-general S.D. Sanjay.
The bench, which also included Justice Ujjal Bhuyan, was dealing with the bail plea of Shashi Bala Singh, an alleged kingpin of a money-laundering racket in Uttar Pradesh. The woman was said to be acting on behalf of the Shine City group of companies in Lucknow. Earlier, Allahabad High Court had dismissed her bail plea on the ground that the charges against her were grave. Aggrieved, she filed an appeal in the apex court, which granted her bail.
The apex court’s scathing observation comes amid increasing criticism of the alleged overarching powers being used by the Enforcement Directorate to keep accused persons in prolonged custody.
Section 45 of the Prevention of Money Laundering Act, 2002, stipulates that bail may be granted to an accused only after the public prosecutor is given the opportunity to oppose the bail plea.
However, an exception to the stringent rule had been carved out under sub-section (ii), which states that “a person who is under the age of sixteen years, or is a woman or is sick and infirm (or is accused either on his own or along with other co-accused of money laundering a sum of less than one crore rupees), may be released on bail if the special court so desires”.
The apex court granted bail to Shashi Bala on the ground that she had been in jail since November 2023 and the trial would take considerable time to conclude as over 65 witnesses were still to be examined.
When the accused’s bail plea came up for consideration on Wednesday, Mehta sought to defuse the situation by tendering an apology for the submissions made by the ASG on December 20, 2024, that there were no exceptions provided to women for the grant of bail under the PMLA. He made the submissions while opposing the bail plea of Shashi Bala.
Mehta sought to clarify that the erroneous submissions by the ASG were made because of “some miscommunication”.
However, Justice Oka said: “No question of miscommunication. We will never appreciate such submissions by the Union of India. If people who appear for the Union of India do not know basic provisions of law, why should they appear in the matter?”
The solicitor-general sought time to file a proper reply while submitting that the accused was a kingpin of a money-laundering racket and not entitled to bail merely because she was a woman.
However, the bench declined the plea, saying: “This shows that you want a person who is arrested under the PMLA to be denied bail under any circumstances.”
Later, the bench dictated an order granting bail to the woman.