Amendements to Act 15 of 2003.
205. In the Prevention of Money-laundering Act, 2002,–
(a) in section 2, in sub-section (1), in clause (u), after the words “within the country”, the words “or abroad” shall be inserted;
(b) in section 5,––
(i) in sub-section (1), after the second provisio, the following provisio shall be inserted, namely:-
Provided also that for the purposes of computing the period of one hundred and eighty days, the period during which the proceedings under this section is stayed by the High Court, shall be excluded and a further period not exceeding thirty days from the date of order of vacation of such stay order shall be counted.’’;
(ii) in sub-section (3), for the word, brackets and figure ‘‘sub-section (2)”, the word, brackets and figure “sub-section (3)” shall be substituted;
(c) in section 8,––
(i) in sub-section (3), in clause (a), after the words “continue during”, the words “investigation for a period not exceeding ninety days or” shall be inserted;
(ii) in sub-section (8), after the proviso, the following proviso shall be inserted, namely:-
“Provided further that the Special Court may, if it thinks fit, consider the claim of the claimant for the purposes of restoration of such properties during the trial of the case in such manner as may be prescribed.”;
(d) in section 19, in sub-section (3),––
(i) after the words “be taken to a”, the words “Special Court or” shall be inserted;
(ii) in the proviso, after the words “from the place of arrest to the”, the words “Special Court or” shall be inserted;
(e) in section 45, in sub-section (1), ––
(i) for the words “punishable for a term of imprisonment of more than three years under Part A of the Schedule”, the words “under this Act” shall be substituted;
(ii) in the proviso, after the words “sick and infirm,”, the words “or is accused either on his own or along with other co-accused of money-laundering a sum of less than one crore rupees” shall be inserted;
(f) in section 50, in sub-section (5), in the proviso, in clause (b), for the word “Director”, the words “Joint Director” shall be substituted;
(g) section 66 shall be numbered as sub-section (1) thereof, and after sub-section (1) as so numbered, the following sub-section shall be inserted, namely:––
“(2) If the Director or other authority specified under sub-section (1) is of the opinion, on the basis of information or material in his possession, that the provisions of any other law for the time being in force are contravened, then the Director or such other authority shall share the information with the concerned agency for necessary action.”;
(h) in the Schedule, in Part A, after Paragraph 28, the following Paragraph shall be inserted, namely:-
“PARAGRAPH 29
OFFENCE UNDER THE COMPANIES ACT, 2013
(18 of 2013)
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Section
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Description of offence
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447
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Punishment for fraud.”.
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Notes on Clauses:
Clauses 204 and 205 of the Bill seeks to amend certain provisions of the Prevention of Money-laundering Act, 2002, which include the following, namely:-
(i) to amend the definition "proceeds of crime" so as to allow to proceed against property equivalent to proceeds to crime held outside the country.
(ii) to insert an Explanation to section 5 of the said Act for the purposes of computing the period of one hundred and eighty days, the period during which the proceeding under the aforesaid section was stayed by the court, shall be excluded and a further period not exceeding thirty days from the date of communication of vacation of such stay order shall be counted.
(iii) to amend section 8 of the said Act relating to adjudication so as to allow Enforcement Directorate reasonable time to file prosecution and also to provide for the Special Court to consider the claim of the claimant for the purpose of restoration of such properties even during trial in such manner as may be prescribed.
(iv) to amend section 19 of the said Act relating to power to arrest by inserting the words "Special Court or" before the words "Magistrate's Court" so that the bail application is required to be heard by Special Court.
(v) to amend section 45 of the Act relating to offences to be cognizable and non-bailable and to amend sub-section (1) of section 45 to substitute the words "punishable for a term of imprisonment of more than three years under Part A of the Schedule" by the words "under this Act" so as to take a step further towards delinking the Schedule offence and money laundering offence. Further, it seeks to amend the proviso in sub-section (1) by inserting the words " or is accused either on his own or along with other co-accused of money laundering a sum of less than Rupees one crore", after the words "sick or infirm" to allow the Court to apply lenient bail provisions in case of money laundering offence is not grave in nature.
(vi) to amend section 50 of the Act relating to powers of authorities regarding summons, production of documents and to give evidence, etc. It is further provided to amend proviso to sub-section (5) of section 50 of the Act by inserting the word "Joint" before the word "Director".
(vii) to amend section 66 of the Act relating to disclosure of information. Further, sub-clause (ii) seeks to insert sub-section (2) in section 66 that "on the basis of material in his possession, if the authority suspects the contravention of any other law then the authority shall share the information with the concerned agency and the agency shall act on that information forthwith", so as to give clear guidance to the officials.
(viii) to amend the Schedule to the Act to insert section 447 of the Companies Act, 2013 as paragraph 29 to Part A to strengthen the Act with respect to Corporate frauds.
