Apart from the specific concerns the Supreme Court’s recent judgment on the Prevention of Money Laundering Act, 2002 raises, there are broader issues raised by this decision which need to be addressed. What is the purpose of having special laws like PMLA in the first place? Are these purposes served by the current framework? Maneka Khanna gets in conversation with Shri Singh to explore these questions.
While the issues with the judgment remain, it is true that the judgment provides some guidance to litigators and puts to an end a lot of uncertainty concerning the Act. However, the expanding scope of the Act brings us back to the same question: is the law serving its noble purpose? Mr Singh is of the opinion that not enough academic rigour has gone into enquiring whether the procedure and the substance of special laws like PMLA have met their objectives. Has the enforcement and the overall legal effect of PMLA met the threshold of functional equivalence it was supposed to meet? Unless these standards are met, the effects of the law will fall short of India’s international commitments. For this, and more, please listen to the conversation!
