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2021 (6) TMI 413 - HC - Money LaunderingJurisdiction - maintainability of appeal filed by Enforcement Directorate itself before Learned Tribunal - Money Laundering - scheduled offences - proceeds of crime - defalcation of ₹ 2672 Crores, involving 25 banks of which five were private ones - Section 26(1) of the PML Act - HELD THAT:- Section 26 is a provision enabling certain entities to file an appeal. In this, so far the Directorate is concerned, the Legislature thought it prudent to specify the Head of the Directorate i.e., the Director as the authority to initiate an appeal. This, however, cannot preclude the Enforcement Directorate itself from preferring an appeal if it decides to do so for some reason. In doing so, the Directorate may fairly be represented by any of its authorities, especially the ones who have been specifically mentioned in section 48 of the Act. Had the appeal been filed by the Assistant Director in his own name instead of by the Director, then a question could have at all arisen about proper adherence to the provisions of section 26 of the Act in filing an appeal. But, when the Directorate itself files the same, whether through the Assistant Director or any other authority as mentioned in the Act itself, it is a substantial compliance of the said provision - Moreover, section 68 of the PML Act espouses a spirit of pragmatism and shuns thwarting actions taken under the said Act merely on the excuse of technicalities. Whether the Enforcement Directorate could also invoke the locus of an 'aggrieved person' in filing an appeal under section 26 of the PML Act? - HELD THAT:- It is true that in the instant case, there is no interpretation clause present to qualify the inclusive definition. However, section 48 of the PML Act, as referred to above, squarely brings an aggrieved entity like the Enforcement Directorate within the ambit of a 'person' as described in section 2 (s) of the Act - the Enforcement Directorate should be competent to file an appeal under section 26 of the PML Act. Thus, there is no bar on the Enforcement Directorate to file an appeal under section 26 of the PML Act, through the Assistant Director, before the learned Appellate Tribunal - appeal dismissed.
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