[Parliament Watch] Details of ED raids, Pandora Papers probe, NCLT Benches

The first day of the ongoing Budget Session of Parliament post the Holi break saw replies on issues ranging from raids conducted by the Enforcement Directorate to benches of the National Company Law Tribunal..To a question by Congress Member of Parliament (MP) Manish Tiwari in the Lok Sabha, Union Minister of State for Finance Pankaj Chaudhary revealed that in proceedings by the Directorate of Enforcement (ED), prosecution complaints have been filed in 943 cases.Special courts under the Prevention of Money Laundering Act (PMLA) have convicted 23 accused for the offence of money laundering, and in 1 case, the accused were discharged on merit, the reply added.The reply also revealed a significant increase in the number of searches conducted by the ED in the last nine years, as compared to the previous decade. Between 2004-2014, 112 searches were carried out that resulted in attachment of proceeds of crime of ₹5,346.16 crore and filing of 104 prosecution complaints, the Minister added. During 2014-22, 2,974 searches were conducted, which resulted in attachment of ₹95,432.08 crore and filing of 839 prosecution complaints, the reply stated.The following data with regard to number of searches/raids by the ED and Income Tax Department under PMLA and Foreign Exchange Management Act was shared:.Congress MP Suresh Narayan Dhanorkar asked a question in the Lok Sabha about progress in the Pandora Papers case, in which alleged offshore accounts of some Indians were brought to light. "For the purpose of coordinated and speedy investigation, a Multi Agency Group (MAG) has been constituted under the convenorship of Chairman CBDT, with Directorate of Enforcement (ED), Reserve Bank of India (RBI), Financial Intelligence Unit India (FIU-IND) and Foreign Tax & Tax Research division of CBDT as its member agencies," the Union Finance Ministry's reply reads. .A question in the Lok Sabha asked the Central government if it plans on setting more Benches of the National Company Law Tribunal (NCLT) and the National Company Law Appellate Tribunal (NCLAT), and the details of pending cases before these forums. The reply stated that benches of the same are set up in a phased manner depending on workload and other factors. The NCLT currently has one Principal Bench and 15 other benches, while the NCLAT has one Principal and one other bench. In this regard, the reply by Union Minister of State for Corporate Affairs, Rao Inderjit Singh, stated, "As of now no proposal to set up any new Bench of NCLT and NCLAT is under consideration. Apart from increase in number of Benches, Government is taking all necessary steps to augment capacity of NCLT, including multiple courts at heavily loaded benches, appointment of members from time to time to fill up the vacancies, implementation of e-court project, provision of requisite infrastructure, regular colloquiums for members, etc." 21,089 cases are pending before NCLT benches as on January 31 this year, including 13,188 cases under the Insolvency and Bankruptcy Code (IBC), and 1,107 cases of Merger and Amalgamation (M&A), the reply added.4,656 cases have been put under the resolution process and 470 Resolution Plans, amounting to ₹2,95,744.84 crore, have been approved, the reply revealed.