“The Fugitive Economic Offenders Ordinance, 2018”. was approved by the union cabinet and then promulgated by the President on April 21st, 2018. This ordinance is brought with a clearly defined approach in mind that is to make sure that no economic offender can leave the country and even if they leave their assets can be seized and confiscated by the government without any hiccups, for this reason, the ordinance vests many special powers to the courts and the directors.”
With the assent of the President of India, the Fugitive Economic Offenders (FEO) Ordinance, 2018 gets promulgated; the new law lays down the measure to empower Indian authorities to attach and confiscate the proceeds of crime associated with economic offenders and the properties of the economic offenders. The earlier legislation that empowered GoI to deal with economic offenders is largely an amalgamation of various laws, and is, therefore, riddled with procedural delays and loopholes.
These loopholes allowed big-ticket tax and loan defaulters to circumvent the law and delay, or indefinitely hold off, the confiscation of their assets against their debt. Moreover, laws such as the Securitization and Reconstruction of Financial Assets and Enforcement of Security Interest (Sarfaesi) Act, 2002, the Recovery of Debts Due to Banks and Financial Institutions Act, 1993, and the Prevention of Money Laundering Act, 2002, conceptualize the attaching of assets as a punitive measure, rather than as a deterrent.
“Fugitive Economic Offenders Ordinance preamble states — A Bill to provide for measures to deter economic offenders from evading the process of Indian law by remaining outside the jurisdiction of Indian courts. ”
Need for Implementation of Ordinance
The need for the Ordinance had arisen as there have been many instances of economic offenders fleeing the jurisdiction of Indian courts, anticipating the commencement, or during the pendency, of criminal proceedings. The absence of such offenders from Indian courts has several deleterious consequences — first, it hampers investigation in criminal cases; second, it wastes precious time of courts of law, third, it undermines the rule of law in India. The existing civil and criminal provisions in law are not entirely adequate to deal with the severity of the problem.
In view of the above context, a Budget announcement was made by the Government in the Budget 2017–18 that the Government was considering to introduce legislative changes or even a new law to confiscate the assets of such absconders till they submit to the jurisdiction of the appropriate legal forum. Pursuant to the above announcement, the Fugitive Economic Offenders Bill, 2018 was introduced in LokSabha on the 12th March, 2018. The Fugitive Economic Offenders Bill, 2018 was listed for…
