{"id":7110,"date":"2026-07-22T17:19:51","date_gmt":"2026-07-22T11:49:51","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/lawsikho.com\/blog\/?p=7110"},"modified":"2026-07-22T19:38:17","modified_gmt":"2026-07-22T14:08:17","slug":"bail-under-pmla-the-section-45-twin-conditions-and-how-to-argue-them","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/lawsikho.com\/blog\/bail-under-pmla-the-section-45-twin-conditions-and-how-to-argue-them\/","title":{"rendered":"Bail Under PMLA: The Section 45 Twin Conditions and How To Argue Them"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

Bail under PMLA is governed by the twin conditions in Section 45 of the Prevention of Money-Laundering Act, 2002<\/a>, which bar release unless the court is satisfied, on reasonable grounds, that the accused is not guilty of money laundering and is not likely to commit any offence while on bail. Money laundering is a cognizable and non-bailable offence, so bail is possible but never automatic. The Supreme Court struck these conditions down in 2017, Parliament re-enacted them in 2018, and the Court upheld the revived provision in 2022. Since 2024, prolonged pre-trial custody and trial delay under Article 21 have become a route to bail even where the twin conditions cannot be met on merits.<\/p>\n

This article sets out how the Section 45 twin conditions work and, more importantly, how to argue for bail under PMLA.<\/p>\n

Two readers land on this page. One is a litigator or a junior briefing a senior on a Section 45 application, and the other is an accused person trying to understand why bail feels harder here than in an ordinary criminal case. It is harder, because the statute reverses the usual position: the court starts from a presumption against release and the applicant has to displace it.<\/p>\n

The honest framing is that the twin conditions are a high bar, not an absolute one. There are three practical routes to bail, the merits limb, the Article 21 delay argument, and the first proviso exception, plus two supporting angles in arrest legality and default bail. This article works through each.<\/p>\n

Bail under Section 45 of the Prevention of Money-Laundering Act, 2002 requires two things. First, the public prosecutor must get an opportunity to oppose the application. Second, where the prosecutor opposes, the court must be satisfied on reasonable grounds that the accused is not guilty of the offence and is not likely to commit any offence while on bail. Both parts of the second condition are cumulative, so the accused has to satisfy the court on not-guilty and on not-likely-to-reoffend together.<\/strong><\/p>\n\n

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