Customs/PMLA Arrest - Bail: Offences under Customs Act are bailable - What about PMLA/FEMA?
THE Supreme Court had in Om Prakash & Anr. vs. Union of India & Anr. - held that offences under the Customs Act were bailable . This has also been included in the Customs Act in the latest Finance Act. Recently, a question arose before the Supreme Court, whether the offences under provisions of the Foreign Exchange Management Act, 1999, and the Prevention of Money Laundering Act, 2002, were bailable. The Supreme Court has modified the interim order passed earlier, staying the arrest of the Petitioner by limiting the relief only to the offences under the Customs Act, 1962.
The fact is there is no arrest under FEMA, and so the question of bail does not arise, and under the PMLA, the Act clearly stipulates in Section 45 that offences are to be cognizable and non-bailable.