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A lawful arrest does not necessarily justify continued imprisonment until an uncertain trial concludes. This distinction lies at the heart of the Supreme Court’s judgment in Sanjay Sureka @ Sanjay Kumar Sureka v. Directorate of Enforcement, 2026 INSC 1124, dec…
In Y. Balaji v. Karthik Desari, decided on 16 May 2023, the Supreme Court held that taking bribe money involves acquiring proceeds of crime: a separate, subsequent transa…
An Enforcement Case Information Report may accommodate more than one scheduled offence in an appropriate case. But can the Enforcement Directorate preserve an ECIR after …
Lawyers, chartered accountants, company secretaries, consultants, brokers and financial advisers regularly work on transactions that later attract investigation. Their pr…
An internal anti-money-laundering investigation is neither a criminal trial nor a routine compliance formality. For a reporting entity under the Prevention of Money-Laund…
The Delhi High Court’s decision in Rohit Vij v Directorate of Enforcement, BAIL APPLN. 4461/2025, dated 10 August 2026, raises a question of exceptional importance under …
Real estate can move and preserve large amounts of value through a single transaction. Cash components, nominee ownership, artificial consideration, third-party payments,…
The Prevention of Money-Laundering Act, 2002 does not make every chartered accountant, company secretary or cost accountant a reporting entity for every professional assi…
India does not regulate anti-money-laundering risk in virtual digital assets merely by warning users about cryptocurrency. Since 7 March 2023, a business carrying on any …
When a company facing allegations of money laundering enters the corporate insolvency resolution process, two public-law objectives meet. The Prevention of Money-Launderi…
Indian banks occupy two legally distinct positions under the Prevention of Money-Laundering Act, 2002. They are reporting entities required to identify customers, underst…
The Prevention of Money-Laundering Act, 2002 is designed to remove criminal property from those who launder it, but confiscation is not necessarily the end of the story. …
An Indian money-laundering case does not stop at the territorial border merely because an account, company, trust, digital wallet, witness or asset is abroad. The Prevent…
Money-laundering investigations frequently begin after the alleged criminal gain has been spent, layered, transferred, converted or moved beyond India. The Prevention of …
An unexplained bank balance, cash deposit or asset disproportionate to declared income may justify inquiry under tax, company, foreign-exchange, corruption or general cri…
On 2 September 2026, the Supreme Court declined to interfere with the Madras High Court’s decision granting bail to Jaffer Sadiq and Mohamed Saleem in a prosecution under…
Property proceedings under the Prevention of Money-Laundering Act, 2002 frequently affect a person who is neither accused of the scheduled offence nor prosecuted for mone…
Section 70 of the Prevention of Money-Laundering Act, 2002 prevents a business organisation from becoming a shield for contraventions committed through it. At the same ti…
Section 23 of the Prevention of Money-Laundering Act, 2002 addresses a recurring evidentiary problem: laundering may be implemented through a sequence rather than a singl…
Section 24 of the Prevention of Money-Laundering Act, 2002 creates a powerful evidentiary presumption, but it does not permit the prosecution to begin with an assumption …
Section 8 of the Prevention of Money-laundering Act, 2002 is the statutory bridge between an executive restraint and judicial confiscation. A provisional attachment under…
A lawful search under the Prevention of Money-laundering Act, 2002 does not give the Enforcement Directorate an indefinite right to keep every asset, document or device t…
Section 17 of the Prevention of Money-laundering Act, 2002 authorises entry, search, seizure, examination on oath and, where seizure is not practicable, freezing of recor…
Provisional attachment under Section 5 of the Prevention of Money-laundering Act, 2002 is an urgent preservation measure, not a declaration of guilt or final confiscation…
Section 50 of the Prevention of Money-laundering Act, 2002 requires a summoned person to attend, state the truth and produce demanded records. Article 20(3) of the Consti…
Section 50 of the Prevention of Money-laundering Act, 2002 gives designated authorities powers resembling those of a civil court for discovery, attendance, examination on…
Section 45 of the Prevention of Money-laundering Act, 2002 contains both a stringent general rule and a deliberately protective proviso. The general rule imposes the fami…
The Prevention of Money-laundering Act, 2002 deliberately imposes a demanding bail standard. Yet Section 45 cannot authorise imprisonment without a realistically timely t…
Bail under the Prevention of Money-Laundering Act, 2002 requires a court to apply two legal frameworks together. Section 45 imposes special restrictions in addition to or…
When the Enforcement Directorate completes investigation without arresting a person and the Special Court later takes cognizance of a prosecution complaint, appearance in…
Section 19 of the Prevention of Money-Laundering Act, 2002 does not confer an unrestricted power to arrest whenever the Enforcement Directorate suspects money laundering.…
C&C Law Chambers | Legal analysis | 3 September 2026 The starting point: “not mandatory” does not mean “prohibited” Can the Enforcement Directorate refuse to supply an En…
When the Predicate Offence Ends: Supreme Court and Delhi High Court Decisions Quashing ECIRs and Consequential PMLA Proceedings The Prevention of Money-Laundering Act, 20…
Are PMLA Search, Seizure and Freezing Measures Open to Criminal-Writ Review? Karnataka High Court’s Gameskraft Ruling The Karnataka High Court has held that a challenge t…
Can an ECIR Be Challenged in a Writ Petition? Karnataka High Court’s Gameskraft Maintainability Ruling The Karnataka High Court has rejected the proposition that an Enfor…
Who Can Be Summoned under Section 50 PMLA? Karnataka High Court Clarifies the Reach and Limits of ED’s Power The Karnataka High Court has held that the Enforcement Direct…
Does Protection in a Predicate FIR Extend to PMLA Proceedings? Delhi High Court’s Ram Singh Decision Interim protection from arrest in a predicate-offence FIR does not, b…
Written Grounds of Arrest under PMLA: The Law after Pankaj Bansal, Ram Kishor Arora and Mihir Rajesh Shah An arrest under the Prevention of Money-Laundering Act, 2002 is …
PMLA Arrest, Search, Remand and Defence Rights: The Punjab and Haryana High Court's Procedural Safeguards The Prevention of Money-laundering Act, 2002 gives the Directora…
The Supreme Court granted bail to a person prosecuted under the Prevention of Money-laundering Act, 2002 after finding that only one of 225 cited witnesses had been exami…
The Supreme Court has clarified that an order confirming attachment, retention or freezing under Section 8(3) of the Prevention of Money-laundering Act, 2002 does not cea…
The replacement of the Indian Penal Code, 1860 by the Bharatiya Nyaya Sanhita, 2023 created an immediate interpretive question for special statutes that still referred to…
Which Special Court Should Try Connected PC Act and PMLA Cases? Madras High Court Applies the Dual-Designation Solution When a corruption prosecution and a connected mone…
When Quashing a Second FIR Does Not End PMLA Proceedings: Madhya Pradesh High Court Explains the Surviving Predicate-Offence Test A quashed FIR does not invariably exting…
Can ED Combine Multiple Predicate FIRs Through ECIR Addenda? The Unresolved PMLA Questions Before the Karnataka High Court The dispute before the Karnataka High Court in …
Mortgaged Properties and PMLA Attachment: Karnataka High Court Protects a Victim Bank’s Security The Karnataka High Court’s decision in Deputy Director, Directorate of En…
Fake GST Invoices, Section 19 Arrest and the Section 45 Bail Barrier: The Jharkhand High Court’s Mohit Deora Ruling The Jharkhand High Court’s decision in Mohit Deora v U…
The High Court of Jammu & Kashmir and Ladakh has resolved an important procedural question under the Prevention of Money-Laundering Act, 2002: when the Appellate Tribunal…
The Telangana High Court’s common order in Om Prakash Sharma v. Directorate of Enforcement and Manoj Baser v. Directorate of Enforcement examines an important boundary un…
Reporting entities are the institutional gatekeepers of India’s anti-money-laundering framework. They are not investigators or courts, but Parliament has assigned them a …
J.K. Tyre and Industries Ltd. v. Directorate of Enforcement, W.P.(C) 5713/2020 and connected matters, decided by the Delhi High Court on 27 October 2021, is a significant…
When the Enforcement Directorate attaches property already mortgaged to a bank or financial institution, two public-law regimes intersect. PMLA seeks to preserve proceeds…
The date on which property was acquired is important, but it is not a complete legal answer to attachment under the Prevention of Money-Laundering Act, 2002. PMLA came in…
The offence of money-laundering is independent in its ingredients and trial, but it is not legally self-generating. Its jurisdictional foundation is property derived or o…
The Supreme Court’s decision in Vijay Madanlal Choudhary v. Union of India, 2022 INSC 757, is the principal modern authority on the structure of the Prevention of Money-L…
Tarsem Lal v. Directorate of Enforcement, 2024 INSC 434, clarified the procedure after the Enforcement Directorate files a prosecution complaint without arresting the acc…
Prem Prakash v. Union of India, decided on 28 August 2024, reinforced that the restrictive bail conditions in Section 45 of the PMLA do not override the constitutional pr…
In Manish Sisodia v. Directorate of Enforcement, decided on 9 August 2024, the Supreme Court granted bail in the connected corruption and money-laundering proceedings. Th…
V. Senthil Balaji v. Deputy Director, Directorate of Enforcement, decided in September 2024, applied Article 21 to a PMLA prosecution involving a substantial evidentiary …
Pavana Dibbur v. Directorate of Enforcement, 2023 INSC 1029, resolved an important question about Section 120B IPC and the PMLA Schedule. The Supreme Court held that cons…
Yash Tuteja v. Union of India, 2024 INSC 301, demonstrates the dependence of a money-laundering complaint on legally sustainable scheduled offences. The Supreme Court qua…
The Supreme Court’s 2024 decision concerning anticipatory bail in PMLA cases confirmed that the special conditions in Section 45 cannot be avoided merely because the appl…
Section 50 PMLA gives specified Enforcement Directorate officers powers to summon persons, require records and record evidence. A person summoned is legally bound to atte…
Section 19 PMLA permits specified ED officers to arrest only when, on material in possession, they have reason to believe that a person is guilty of an offence under the …
Section 5 PMLA enables provisional attachment of property to prevent alleged proceeds of crime from being concealed, transferred or dealt with in a manner that frustrates…
After a provisional attachment or qualifying seizure, Section 8 PMLA places the property question before the Adjudicating Authority. This stage supplies an independent st…
Section 24 PMLA alters the ordinary evidentiary position by creating a statutory presumption concerning proceeds of crime. Its operation must be understood with the prose…
Section 70 PMLA addresses offences by companies and other associations. It can extend liability beyond the entity, but it does not justify naming every director or office…
A PMLA prosecution is separate from the scheduled-offence trial, yet it depends on proceeds of crime derived from criminal activity relating to a scheduled offence. The l…