In Brief
The Supreme Court struck down Section 45(1) of the Prevention of Money Laundering Act, 2002, which imposed two stringent conditions for granting bail in cases involving scheduled offences punishable for more than three years: opportunity for the Public Prosecutor to oppose the bail application, and the Court's satisfaction that the accused is not guilty of the scheduled offence and unlikely to commit further offences. The Court held that this provision violates Articles 14 (equality) and 21 (personal liberty) because the classification of offences based on sentencing of predicate offences has no rational relation to the object of the money laundering legislation, the conditions bear no nexus with the money laundering offence itself, and the provision inverts the presumption of innocence. The Court remanded all cases where bail was denied under this provision for fresh hearings without applying Section 45's twin conditions.
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