Out of the many acronyms that have entered the public consciousness over the years, ‘PMLA’ and ‘ED’ have slowly become the predominant ones to emerge from the legal landscape over the past decade (2013-2023). The number of cases registered by the Enforcement Directorate under the Prevention of Money Laundering Act 2002 has seen a tremendous increase over this decade, most recently in the context of the Aam Aadmi Party and the excise policy case. From 195 cases in all of 2018-19, the first two months of 2022 itself had seen 579 cases registered as per a response in Parliament.
What has this frenzied activity meant for the country? The answers naturally depend on who you choose to ask the question.
For critics, the PMLA and ED are reminiscent of yet another infamous legal acronym, ‘MISA’ (for the Maintenance of Internal Security Act 1971), because of its stringent provisions on matters of investigations and bail and the ED’s selective targeting of opposition to the central government. For supporters, the bite of the PMLA is not a concern but necessary since money laundering is no joke, a position comprehensively affirmed by the Supreme Court which upheld the validity of the provisions in 2022. Further, the so-called selective enforcement issues are overblown for the law is an unqualified success in hoovering up ill-gotten assets and restoring them to the public.