THE FUGITIVE ECONOMIC OFFENDERS BILL, 2017

There have been several 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.

Further, several such cases of economic offenses involve non-repayment of bank loans thereby causing strain on the banking sector in India.

In response to the above, Government has introduced a draft law called 'THE FUGITIVE ECONOMIC OFFENDERS BILL, 2017'.

It is widely felt that the spectre of high-value economic offenders absconding from India to defy the legal process seriously undermines the rule of law in India. It is necessary to provide an effective, expeditious and constitutionally permissible deterrent to ensure that such actions are curbed. To serve these ends, this Bill is being proposed. – Ministry of Economic Affairs

Salient features of the bill are as follows:

a. Definition of the fugitive economic offender has been defined which includes both the persons i.e. who have already left India or who are planning to leave India after committing the offense as defined under this bill.

b. List of offenses have been covered under the Schedule of the Bill which is bifurcated   under the several parts

·       Offences under the Indian Penal Code, 1860

·       Offences under the Prevention of Corruption Act, 1988

·       Offences under the Securities and Exchange Board of India Act, 1992

·       Offences under the Customs Act, 1962

·       Offences under the Companies Act, 2013

·       Offence under the Limited Liability Partnership Act, 2008

·       Offence under the Insolvency & Bankruptcy Code, 2016

c. The provisions of this Act will override anything inconsistent in any other law in force.

d. The burden of proof is on the Director or the Person Authorised to prove an individual is a fugitive economic offender.

e. Notice under this Act shall be issued to any other person who has any interest in the property related to the economic offender.

f. Confiscated property under this Act shall be managed by the Administrator appointed by the Central Government under this Act and the Administrator shall only be the person who is insolvency professional under the Insolvency and Bankruptcy Code, 2016.

g. Appeal against the order of Special Court shall be forwarded to High Court within a period of 30 days.

h.Concept of Contracting State has been defined under the Act which includes the States with which Indian Government has a treaty or otherwise has any arrangements; 

All stakeholders/people are requested to submit their comments/suggestions on the draft of this bill by June 3, 2017. Comments / Suggestions can be sent to parveen.k63@gov.in or can send hard copies at this address - Mr. Parveen Kumar, Under Secretary (FSLRC), Department of Economic Affairs, Ministry of Finance, Room No. 48, North Block, New Delhi - 110001

The complete copy of the draft can be accessed through the following link:

http://dea.gov.in/sites/default/files/Draft%20Fugitive%20Economic%20Offenders%20Bill%2C%202017-22.3.2017_0.pdf