Amit Katyal v. Union of India
Background
The petitioner, a promoter of a real-estate company facing multiple cheating complaints from homebuyers, was prosecuted under the Prevention of Money Laundering Act (PMLA) before the Special Court at Gurugram. He initially sought quashing of the prosecution but narrowed his request during arguments to a transfer of the case from Gurugram to the Special PMLA Court in Delhi, pointing out that a related predicate criminal case had already been transferred there by another bench of the Supreme Court.
Decision Breakdown
The Court explained that a PMLA prosecution can be lawfully instituted in any Special Court within whose jurisdiction "proceeds of crime" were generated, concealed, possessed, used, or projected as untainted property. Since part of the illicit proceeds (cash, jewellery, vehicles, fixed deposits) had been attached in Delhi, and the connected predicate offence had already been transferred to a Delhi court, the Supreme Court held that both Gurugram and Delhi had simultaneous jurisdiction. In the interest of giving full effect to the law requiring the PMLA case and its predicate offence to be tried together, the Court ordered the PMLA prosecution transferred to the Special PMLA Court in Saket, Delhi, to continue from the stage it had reached in Gurugram.
Lesson Learnt
Because money-laundering offences can span multiple locations (where the crime happened, where its proceeds were hidden or used), more than one court can have valid jurisdiction over the same PMLA case, and the Supreme Court can transfer such cases to keep a linked predicate offence and its PMLA prosecution before the same court system.