The National Company Law Appellate Tribunal (NCLAT) at Delhi on Tuesday held that the moratorium under the Insolvency and Bankruptcy Code (IBC) does not prevent the Enforcement Directorate (ED) from attaching assets alleged to be proceeds of crime under the Prevention of Money Laundering Act (PMLA).
It observed that Parliament did not enact the IBC “to create a holy Ganges” that would wash a corporate debtor of criminality under the PMLA or legitimise ill-gotten wealth.
A three-member tribunal comprising Judicial Member Justice N. Seshasayee and Technical Members Arun Baroka and Indevar Pandey observed:
“..the PMLA in its working neither differentiates nor discriminates the companies that are drawn into a CIRP and those which are…