HOW EXTRADITION LAWS ARE AFFECTING ECONOMIC OFFENDERS TO ESCAPE FROM THE PUNISHMENT IN INDIA

HOW EXTRADITION LAWS ARE AFFECTING ECONOMIC OFFENDERS TO ESCAPE FROM THE PUNISHMENT IN INDIA

Extradition means the act of making someone return for trial to another country or state where they have been accused of doing something illegal.

Extradition treaty means an agreement where two countries accept for extradition between them.

So, if any person commits an offence in India which is punishable and he escapes from the nation and hides in other nation so as to escape from the punishment, he can be brought back to India for trial and vice versa , Provided India is having an extradition treaty with that nation. 

An Extradition treaty requires that a country seeking extradition be able to show that: The relevant crime is sufficiently serious. There exists a prima facie case against the individual sought. The event in question qualifies as a crime in both countries. 

The Indian Extradition Act, 1962 governs the extradition of a wanted offender from India. This applies to both the extradition of people to India and the extradition of people out of India. A treaty between India and another nation could serve as the foundation for the extradition. 

Having an extradition treaty is important. Because, if there is no extradition between two nations the person convicted for an offence in nation 1 might go to nation 2 and hide there for which nation 1 government cannot force him to return to their nation.

Depending on the nation concerned, extradition laws vary substantially. A court phase and an executive phase typically make up extradition procedures.  The case moves into the court stage once a person has been identified and taken into custody in the requesting nation. A judge will decide whether the extradition request complies with the provisions of the relevant extradition treaty and the law of the requesting country during the judicial phase.  If so, the court will decide whether or not the person can be extradited.  The case moves on to the executive phase when an executive authority of the government of the requested country decides whether or not the person can be extradited. A country's willingness to extradite a desired individual is often decided by the prime minister, the justice minister, or the foreign minister.  If so, an order for surrender may be issued by the executive authorities.  Depending on the nation, there may be several stages of appeal for both the judicial decision and the executive decision to turn over the desired person.  When the requested nation is prepared to accept the surrender, its officials will work with those in the asking nation to transfer the detained wanted person.

Many economic offenders are making use of the loop holes in this extradition treaties and are escaping from India and are hiding in nations where India is not having extradition treaties. Though India is having an extradition treaty with the UK which was signed in 1992, it has accepted only 2 requests for extradition of a fugitive living in that country. All other requests remain pending till date. Because of the slow proceedings related to this extradition laws, many financial fraudsters are hiding in UK to escape punishment and one of such are Vijay Mallya and Nirav Modi. Indian fugitives frequently travel to the UK where they live opulent lives while avoiding capture. The UK investment visa (tier 1), also known as the "Golden Visa," is the cause of this obnoxious lifestyle. Any investor with 200,000 pounds can stay for up to three years and four months in the UK economy. Following the additional investment amounts, one can additionally apply for settlement in the UK. And it is hard to prove that it is dual criminality in UK because of which the proceedings are extending. 

There should be a proper law to put these economic offenders behind bars and it should be stricter, until then we can’t see India as a developed economy.

Author: Sushma Swaraj Mamillapalli - student at ICFAI Law School, Hyderabad