Supreme Court had rejected ED’s sealed cover for the first time in Chidambaram case, Praising CJI Chandrachud, Sibal said that the decision
During the debate in the money laundering case in the Supreme Court, senior advocate Kapil Sibal termed the report to be presented in a sealed cover as wrong and said that CJI Chandrachud took the right decision by rejecting it. This exercise is not right from any point of view. Sibal pointed out that for the first time the Supreme Court refused to accept the ED’s report in a sealed cover in the money laundering case involving the country’s Finance Minister P Chidambaram. This tradition started since then. The latest decision of CJI Chandrachud is commendable in every way. Sibal told that he himself was appearing in the Supreme Court in the case of P Chidambaram. Then he demanded the court to dismiss the sealed report, saying it was completely wrong.
Sibal was presenting his arguments in Tamil Nadu’s cash for job scam in front of a bench of Justice Krishna Murari and Justice Ramasubramaniam. Tamil Nadu’s V Sethil Balaji and others have been made accused in the case. He is accused of taking bribe in the name of getting a job in the State Transport Corporation. Sibal challenged the order of the Madras High Court and sought the intervention of the Supreme Court.
The Money Laundering Act of 2002 is against the federal structure
Kapil Sibal termed the Money Laundering Act of 2002 as wrong and said that it is not only against justice but also against the federal structure of the country. ED is working like police. In any case, a case is registered and the ED becomes active under the charge of money laundering. The crime may have happened anywhere. Connecting his connection to another place, ED raids and starts attaching the property. Sibal said that the ED works like a court. When she sends summons to someone, it is not known that he was called as an accused. Or as a witness.
Sibal said that if I bribe someone then it is a crime. There is no such thing as money laundering in this. Money laundering starts when something else (gold or land) is bought with that money. Sibal said that the CBI has to go through all kinds of procedures before investigating a case. But these restrictions apply to the ED. Because of this the central agency has become unbridled.
There is a need to consider the decision of the bench of three judges of the Supreme Court
Describing the decision of a three- judge bench of the Supreme Court in the Vijay Madan Lal Chowdhary case as wrong, he said that the issue of ED needs to be considered by a larger bench. In that case, the Supreme Court bench of Justice AM Khanwilkar, Justice Dinesh Maheshwari and Justice CT Ravi Kumar, upholding the provisions of the Money Laundering Act 2002, said that the ED has full right to arrest, raid and attach property.
