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2018 (9) TMI 265 - HC - Money LaunderingOffence under PMLA - provisional attachment orders - whether this Court has territorial jurisdiction to entertain the present petition? - Held that:- Although the impugned order has been passed by the Deputy Director, ED, from his office in Chandigarh, there is no dispute that the alleged offence of money laundering would have to be tried in Delhi. The impugned order is founded on the FIR which has been registered in Delhi. The Enforcement Case Information Report (ECIR) also indicates the place of occurrence of the alleged offence as “New Delhi and other places”. In the aforesaid circumstances, this Court is not persuaded to accept that this Court does not have the jurisdiction to entertain the present petition. Even otherwise, the rule of forum non conveniens does not denude the court of its jurisdiction; it only entails that a court will decline to exercise its jurisdiction if it is more convenient that the petition be considered by another court. It is a rule founded on convenience and self restraint by courts and not on lack of jurisdiction. Thus, the contention that the present petition is not maintainable in unmerited. Interference with the impugned order as warranted by this Court at this stage - Held that:- The impugned order is only a provisional order of attachment and the question whether the same has to be confirmed is now required to be adjudicated by the Adjudicating Authority in terms of Section 8 of the PML Act. In this view, this Court was initially reluctant to interfere at this stage. However, a plain reading of the impugned order clearly indicates that the impugned order is fundamentally flawed and is without authority of law. The impugned order of provisional attachment is founded on the allegation that the property sought to be attached has been used in commission of a scheduled offence and, therefore, is liable to be attached as proceeds of crime. However, it is obvious that merely because a property used in commission of crime, the same cannot be construed as proceeds of that crime. Any amount used in commission of a scheduled offence would fall within the expression “proceeds of crime” as defined under Section 2(1) (u) of the PML Act is fundamentally flawed. In the present case, the allegation against HEPL is that it had obtained allocation of coal block on the basis of misrepresentation. However, it is not disputed that mining of the coal from the block had not commenced, therefore, HEPL did not derive or obtain any benefit from the coal block. The ED has also not indicated any reason, which could lead one to believe that HEPL had derived any other benefit from the allocation of the coal block in question. Thus the petition is allowed and the impugned order is set aside. Consequently, the complaint dated 19.01.2018 made under Section 8 of the PML Act is also set aside.
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