NEW DELHI, Oct 14: Reinforcing the maxim that bail is norm and jail exception and even stringent laws have a humane face, the Chief Justice of India DY Chandrachud on Monday granted bail for an ailing man arrested under the rigorous anti-money laundering law.
“However stringent PMLA is, as judges we have to operate in the four corners of the law. Law tells us that someone who is sick and infirm be granted bail,” Justice Chandrachud said.
“That he could be treated at a government hospital is no answer to what the statute says. Sick or infirm means you can be granted bail,” he added, while presiding over a three-judge bench hearing the interim bail petition of 67-year-old Amar Sadhuram Mulchandani, former chairperson of Seva Vikas Co-operative Bank, who was arrested in July last year.
The Prevention of Money Laundering Act (PMLA) is non-bailable since unlike other laws, the accused here has to prove that he is not guilty. An accused gets bail only when the court is satisfied that there are reasonable grounds for believing that he is not guilty of the offense, and not likely to commit any offense while on bail. Even so, the public prosecutor has to be given an opportunity to oppose bail.
This provision — listed under Section 45 of the law – was upheld earlier by the Supreme Court. The bench on Monday said the “Proviso to Section 45 (1) of PMLA specifically contemplates that a person who ‘is sick or infirm’ may be released on bail if the special court so directs”.
Earlier several people, including Aam Aadmi Party’s Arvind Kejriwal, Manish Sisodia and Bharat Rashtra Samithi’s K Kavitha had got bail, though after spending months in jail. AAP’s Satyendar Jain had also got interim bail last year on health grounds.
(Manas Dasgupta)