Granting bail to Jharkhand Chief Minister Hemant Soren's aide, Prem Prakash, in an illegal mining-related case, the Supreme Court, on Wednesday, upheld that the general principle that "bail is rule, and jail is exception" applies even in money laundering cases registered under the Prevention of Money Laundering Act (PMLA).
Prakash is accused of being involved in illegal mining in the state. The top court set aside the March 22 order of the Jharkhand High Court denying him bail.
A bench of Justices B.R. Gavai and K.V. Viswanathan said liberty of the individual is always the rule. The bench said no person should be deprived of liberty and section 45 of the PMLA which lays down the conditions for bail of an accused in a money laundering case does not rewrite the principle to mean that deprivation of liberty is the norm.
The top court referred to the August 9 verdict in the money laundering and corruption cases involving former Delhi deputy chief minister and AAP leader Manish Sisodia.
"Relying on the judgment in Manish Sisodia, we have said that even in PMLA, bail is a rule and jail the exception. All that S 45 specifies is the conditions to be met for bail. Liberty of the individual is always the rule and deprivation, by procedure established by law, the exception. Twin test does not take away this principle," Bar and Bench quoted the apex court as saying.
"All that is required is that in cases where bail is subject to the satisfaction of the twin conditions, those conditions must be satisfied," the court said.
