“Liberty of the individual is always a rule, and deprivation is the exception,” observed the Supreme Court while granting bail to Prem Prakash, Jharkhand Chief Minister Hemant Soren’s aide, in an illegal mining-related case registered by the ED.
A bench of Justices BR Gavai and KV Viswanathan held that Section 45 of the Prevention of Money Laundering Act should not be construed in such a way that makes bail an impossibility in money laundering cases. Justice Viswanathan said, “Section 45 PMLA does not re-write this principle [that bail is the rule] to mean that deprivation is the norm and liberty is the exception.”
