{"id":30888,"date":"2018-10-27T11:19:20","date_gmt":"2018-10-27T05:49:20","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/blog.forumias.com\/?p=30888"},"modified":"2018-10-27T11:19:20","modified_gmt":"2018-10-27T05:49:20","slug":"fear-of-forfeiture","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/forumias.com\/blog\/fear-of-forfeiture\/","title":{"rendered":"Fear of forfeiture"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><a href=\"http:\/\/www.thehindu.com\/todays-paper\/tp-opinion\/fear-of-forfeiture\/article22914020.ece\"><b>Fear of forfeiture<\/b><\/a><\/p>\n<p><b>Context:<\/b><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">The proposed law to seize the wealth of economic offenders is a welcome measure.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><b>Shortcomings of the Previous Laws<\/b><\/p>\n<ul>\n<li style=\"font-weight: 400;\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Legal provisions to confiscate the assets of offenders already exist, but these are regarded as somewhat inadequate.<\/span><\/li>\n<li style=\"font-weight: 400;\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">From the provision in the Code of Criminal Procedure for attachment of the property of \u2018proclaimed offenders\u2019, to sections in Acts targeting smugglers, foreign exchange offenders and traffickers in narcotics, proceedings for forfeiture of property have been marked by shortcomings and procedural delays.<\/span><\/li>\n<li style=\"font-weight: 400;\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">The Smugglers and Foreign Exchange Manipulators (Forfeiture of Property) Act, 1976, have not exactly been a success.<\/span><\/li>\n<li style=\"font-weight: 400;\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Experience has shown that disposal of confiscated assets is not easy, especially at a price sufficient to recoup losses or pay off all creditors.<\/span><\/li>\n<li style=\"font-weight: 400;\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">The Fugitive Economic Offenders Bill aims to make up for the shortcomings and provide a fresh legal framework that would enable the confiscation of the property of those evading prosecution by fleeing the country or remaining abroad.<\/span><\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p><b>About The Fugitive Economic Offenders Bill:<\/b><\/p>\n<ul>\n<li style=\"font-weight: 400;\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">The Bill aims to stop economic offenders who leave the country to avoid due process. Offences involving amounts of \u20b9100 crore or more fall under the purview of this law.<\/span><\/li>\n<li style=\"font-weight: 400;\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Economic offences are those that are defined under the Indian Penal Code, the Prevention of Corruption Act, the SEBI Act, the Customs Act, the Companies Act, Limited Liability Partnership Act, and the Insolvency and Bankruptcy Code<\/span><\/li>\n<li style=\"font-weight: 400;\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">According to the draft Bill, a fugitive economic offender is \u201cany individual against whom a warrant for arrest in relation to a schedule offence has been issued by any court of India who, either leaves or has left India to avoid criminal prosecution or refuses to return to India to face criminal prosecution<\/span><\/li>\n<li style=\"font-weight: 400;\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Under the Fugitive Economic Offenders Bill, confiscation is not limited to the proceeds of crime, and extends to any asset owned by an offender, including benami property.<\/span><\/li>\n<li style=\"font-weight: 400;\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">The government has justified not linking the forfeiture clause to criminal conviction by citing the principle enshrined in the UN Convention against Corruption<\/span><\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p><b>About UN Convention against Corruption:<\/b><\/p>\n<ul>\n<li style=\"font-weight: 400;\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">The convention envisages domestic laws for confiscation of property without a criminal conviction in cases in which the offenders cannot be prosecuted for reasons of death, flight or absence.<\/span><\/li>\n<li style=\"font-weight: 400;\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">India ratified it in 2011<\/span><\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p><b>Way ahead:<\/b><\/p>\n<ul>\n<li style=\"font-weight: 400;\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">The utility and effectiveness of laws are best assessed in the implementation,<\/span><\/li>\n<li style=\"font-weight: 400;\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">However, it is important to ensure they are fair and reasonable.<\/span><\/li>\n<li style=\"font-weight: 400;\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">The shortcomings in previous laws must be avoided, and the new legal regime impartially enforced.<\/span><\/li>\n<\/ul>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Fear of forfeiture Context: The proposed law to seize the wealth of economic offenders is a welcome measure. Shortcomings of the Previous Laws Legal provisions to confiscate the assets of offenders already exist, but these are regarded as somewhat inadequate. From the provision in the Code of Criminal Procedure for attachment of the property of&hellip; <a class=\"more-link\" href=\"https:\/\/forumias.com\/blog\/fear-of-forfeiture\/\">Continue reading <span class=\"screen-reader-text\">Fear of forfeiture<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":61,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[555],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-30888","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-test-1","entry"],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","views":{"total":0,"cached_at":"","cached_date":1704895883},"jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/forumias.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/30888","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/forumias.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/forumias.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/forumias.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/61"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/forumias.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=30888"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/forumias.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/30888\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/forumias.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=30888"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/forumias.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=30888"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/forumias.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=30888"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}