Lawless Laws and the Supreme Court
The Supreme Court’s blessing for the PMLA shows its contempt for human rights and the Constitution.
To say that the Prevention of Money Laundering Act (PMLA), 2002 is a Kafkaesque law is putting it mildly. Introduced in 2002 to tackle terror funding, the PMLA has been amended over the years to become a lawless law used at will to target political opponents and intimidate businessper- sons. The rate of conviction under the PMLA is abysmal—out of 5,422 cases, the Directorate of Enforcement has been able to obtain convictions against only 23 people—a conviction rate of less than 0.5%! This conviction rate also gives us a hint to the true purpose and nature of the law.
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About the Author
Alok Prasanna Kumar is Co-Founder and Lead, Vidhi Karnataka. His areas of research include judicial reforms, Constitutional law, urban development, and law and technology. He graduated with a B.A. LL.B. (Hons) from the NALSAR University in 2008 and obtained the BCL from the University of Oxford in 2009. He writes a monthly column for the Economic and Political Weekly and has published in the Indian Journal of Constitutional Law and National Law School of India Review apart from media outlets such as The Hindu, Indian Express, Scroll, Quint and Caravan. He has practiced in the Supreme Court and Delhi High Court from the chambers of Mr Mohan Parasaran, and currently also co-hosts the Ganatantra podcast on IVM Podcasts.