THE HINDU Editorial Vocabulary - April 25, 2018 - Topic 2

Nabbing absconders

On Fugitive Economic Offenders Ordinance

Last Saturday, within hours of Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s return to Delhi from an overseas tour, the Union Cabinet approved the promulgation of the Fugitive Economic Offenders Ordinance, 2018. A fugitive is defined as someone who has left India to avoid criminal prosecution or who is already overseas and refuses to return to face the law. In recent weeks, banks have been asked to mandatorily collect passport details of those borrowing above Rs.50 crore, and the passports of some wilful defaulters are being impounded too. 

Given that the proposed legislation was announced well over a year ago, the trigger for this belated haste is easy to see. While presenting Budget 2017-18, the Finance Minister referred to instances of offenders fleeing the country to escape its justice system, and said the government was looking at a law to confiscate the assets of such persons till they return to face the law. By September, the Finance and Law Ministries had agreed on a draft Bill, but it was only introduced in the Lok Sabha this March, in a session that proved to be a washout. The government is no doubt conscious of the clamour for tough action on absconding offenders, particularly those involved in financial misdemeanours and wilful defaulters of bank loans.

There remains great consternation over liquor baron Vijay Mallya’s flight from the country, with his now-defunct Kingfisher Airlines having run up outstanding loans of over Rs.9,000 crore from Indian banks. Both Mr. Mallya and former Indian Premier League commissioner Lalit Modi, who faces an Enforcement Directorate probe for foreign exchange law violations, are in Britain. They left Indian shores for safer climes under the NDA government’s watch, as did diamond merchants Nirav Modi, Mehul Choksi and their associates, whose firms defrauded the country’s second largest public sector bank of over Rs.12,800 crore. India is no closer to getting Mr. Modi or Mr. Mallya back to face the law, with extradition proceedings against the latter crawling through U.K. courts. No clear indications about whether their return could be expedited emerged during Prime Minister Modi’s meeting with his British counterpart Theresa May last week. Meanwhile, though government agencies have attached the diamond merchant duo’s assets in India, an American court has disallowed the sale of their assets in other jurisdictions while allowing their U.S.-based entity to offload its assets. The reason: India is yet to pass a model law mooted by the UN for cross-border insolvency cases. It is not clear whether this ordinance can tide over this major handicap. The government may have opted for the ordinance route to deflect the heat from these cases of fraud, but it needs to present a coherent vision about its plans to bring back those fugitives who have already got away and plug the remaining loopholes in the system.

Vocabulary

Overseas: from, to, or relating to a foreign country, especially one across the sea.

Example: Overseas trips

Fugitive: a person who has escaped from a place or is in hiding, especially to avoid arrest or persecution.

Example: Fugitives from justice

Synonyms: escapee, runaway, deserter, absconder, refugee

Prosecution: the institution and conducting of legal proceedings against someone in respect of a criminal charge.

Example: Olesky faces prosecution on charges he spied for Russian intelligence

Mandatorily: required by law or rules; compulsory.

Example: Wearing helmets was made mandatory for cyclists

Synonyms: obligatory, compulsory, binding, required, requisite, necessary

Instance: an example or single occurrence of something.

Example: A serious instance of corruption

Synonyms: example, exemplar, occasion, occurrence, case

Confiscate: take or seize someone's property with authority.

Example: The guards confiscated his camera

Synonyms: impound, seize, commandeer, requisition, appropriate, expropriate

Conscious: aware of and responding to one's surroundings; awake.

Example: He was admitted to the ICU conscious and alert, but with a very low blood pressure, and very marginal oxygenation.

Synonyms: aware, awake, alert, responsive, sentient, compos mentis

Defrauded: illegally obtain money from someone by deception.

Example: He used a false identity to defraud the bank of thousands of dollars

Synonyms: swindle, cheat, rob, embezzle, deceive, dupe, hoodwink, double-cross

Indication: a sign or piece of information that indicates something.

Example: The visit was an indication of the improvement in relations between the countries

Synonyms: sign, signal, indicator, symptom, mark, manifestation, demonstration

Insolvency: the state of being insolvent; inability to pay one's debts.

Example: The club was facing insolvency

Ordinance: an authoritative order; a decree.

Example: A city ordinance banned smoking in nearly all types of restaurants synonyms: edict, decree, law, injunction, fiat, command, order, rule, ruling

Coherent:  logical and consistent.

Example: They failed to develop a coherent economic strategy

Synonyms: logical, reasoned, reasonable, rational, sound, cogent