The Supreme Court on November 29 clarified that a person will be booked for criminal conspiracy under the Prevention of Money Laundering Act (PMLA) only if the intrigue was hatched to commit a crime specifically listed in the Schedule of the Act.
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“The offence punishable under Section 120B (criminal conspiracy) of the Indian Penal Code will become a scheduled offence only if the conspiracy alleged is of committing an offence which is specifically included in the Schedule,” a Bench headed by Justice A.S. Oka held in a judgment.
The court rejected an argument made by the Directorate of Enforcement (ED) that Section 120B of the IPC was included in Part A of the PMLA Schedule of Offences. So, even if the allegation was of making a criminal conspiracy to commit an offence which was not a part of the Schedule, the offence would become a scheduled offence.
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“By that logic, a conspiracy to commit any offence under any penal law which is capable of generating proceeds, can be converted into a scheduled offence by applying Section 120B of the IPC, though the offence is not a part of the Schedule. This cannot be the intention of the legislature,” Justice Oka wrote in the judgment.
The court said the interpretation suggested by the ED would defeat the legislative object of making only a few selected offences as scheduled offences under the PMLA.
“Every crime which may generate proceeds of crime need not be a scheduled offence (under the PMLA)... If we accept such an interpretation, the statute may attract the vice of unconstitutionality for being manifestly arbitrary. It cannot be the legislature’s intention to make every offence not included in the Schedule a scheduled offence by applying Section 120B. Therefore, in our view, the offence under Section 120B of IPC included in Part A of the Schedule will become a scheduled offence only if the criminal conspiracy is to commit any offence already included in Parts A, B or C of the Schedule,” the court declared.