This notification only substitutes the Rajasthan designation entry in the PMLA Special Courts table. It does not amend the Prevention of Money-laundering Act, 2002, does not change which offences Special Courts may try, and does not itself transfer any pending case; transfers to the Jaipur transfer-only courts require orders of the Rajasthan High Court. It states no separate commencement date, and this article does not assume one beyond the Gazette publication date of 23 October 2026.
- Issuer
- Ministry of Finance (Department of Revenue)
- Act
- Prevention of Money-laundering Act, 2002
- Outcome
- Gazette notification S.O. 5757(E), dated 23 October 2026, substituting serial number 22 (Rajasthan) in the table to S.O. 372(E) dated 5 February 2016.
Jaipur Bench districts to CBI Court No. 3; Jodhpur districts to the Jodhpur court
On 23 October 2026, the Ministry of Finance (Department of Revenue) notified S.O. 5757(E), substituting the Rajasthan entry in the table to the 2016 notification that designates Special Courts under the Prevention of Money-laundering Act, 2002. The substituted serial number 22 assigns the districts falling in the jurisdiction of the Rajasthan High Court Bench at Jaipur to the Court of Special Judge (CBI) No. 3, Jaipur, and the districts falling in the jurisdiction of the Rajasthan High Court at Jodhpur to the Court of Special Judge (CBI), Jodhpur.
The notification is made under sub-section (1) of section 43 of the Prevention of Money-laundering Act, 2002, and states that it is made in consultation with the Chief Justice of the High Court of Rajasthan. It amends the notification published as S.O. 372(E) on 5 February 2016, which is the principal notification designating Special Courts under the Act.
The designation scheme it amends
Section 43 of the Prevention of Money-laundering Act, 2002 empowers the Central Government, in consultation with the Chief Justice of the High Court concerned, to designate Special Courts for the trial of offences under the Act. The principal notification, S.O. 372(E), dated 5 February 2016, carries a table of such designations, organised by serial number and State, with the designated court and the area assigned to it.
The note printed with S.O. 5757(E) records that the principal notification was last amended by S.O. 5082(E), dated 16 September 2026. S.O. 5757(E) is therefore a further amendment to that table, confined to the Rajasthan entry at serial number 22; it does not reproduce or amend the rest of the table.
The substituted entry, court by court
For serial number 22, Rajasthan, the substituted entries read as follows. The Court of Special Judge (CBI) No. 3, Jaipur, takes the districts falling in the jurisdiction of the Rajasthan High Court Bench, Jaipur. The Court of Special Judge (CBI), Jodhpur, takes the districts falling in the jurisdiction of the Rajasthan High Court, Jodhpur.
Three further Jaipur courts are given a transfer-only role in the substituted entry. The Court of Special Judge (CBI) No. 2, Jaipur, the Court of Special Judge (CBI) No. 4, Jaipur, and the Court of Special Judge (CBI) No. 5, Jaipur, will each hear transferred cases only, as transferred by the Rajasthan High Court. The notification does not itself name the cases to be transferred; transfers remain acts of the High Court.
The notification is signed by Rajeev Lochan, Under Secretary, under file number C-18015/6/2024-Ad.ED, and was published in the Gazette of India, Extraordinary, Part II, Section 3, Sub-section (ii), as Gazette No. 5540, dated Friday, 23 October 2026.
What this does and does not change
The practical effect is a re-mapping of Rajasthan's PMLA Special Court jurisdiction between the Jaipur Bench districts and the Jodhpur districts, with three Jaipur courts retained for transferred cases only. Practitioners filing in Rajasthan should therefore check the substituted serial 22 entry, rather than the pre-amendment entry, to identify the designated court for a district.
The notification does not amend the Prevention of Money-laundering Act itself, does not change the offences triable by Special Courts, and does not transfer any particular pending case: a case reaches Courts No. 2, No. 4 or No. 5 at Jaipur only when the Rajasthan High Court transfers it there. The Hindi text of the notification appears on pages 1 and 2 of the Gazette PDF and the English text on page 3; this article follows the English text.
BANTHRY ANALYSISFor law students: designation is administration, not adjudication
This is a good example of subordinate legislation doing court-administration work. Section 43 does not decide any case; it creates the forum. A designation notification answers only the question of which court is empowered to try PMLA offences for a given area, and an amendment like S.O. 5757(E) answers it afresh for Rajasthan without touching the substantive offences, the trial procedure, or the merits of any pending prosecution.
Students should also note the consultation requirement: the notification recites consultation with the Chief Justice of the Rajasthan High Court, which is the statutory precondition in section 43(1) for the Central Government's designation power. The transfer-only entries are a further lesson in judicial administration: designation and transfer are distinct acts, and only the High Court's transfer order moves a case, not the Gazette entry alone.
READING PROMPTSQuestions for a closer reading
- Under what statutory power, and after what consultation, was S.O. 5757(E) made?
- Which court takes the districts under the Rajasthan High Court Bench at Jaipur, and which court takes the districts under the Rajasthan High Court at Jodhpur, under the substituted serial 22?
- What is the role of CBI Courts No. 2, No. 4 and No. 5 at Jaipur under the substituted entry, and whose act is required before any case reaches them?
