A new twist came in the hearing of petitions against the powers of ED in the Supreme Court.
A new twist came up during the hearing in the Supreme Court on petitions against the powers of the Enforcement Directorate (ED) under the Prevention of Money Laundering Act (PMLA). After two days of hearing, the hearing of the case was adjourned for the time being. The matter will be sent to the new bench. Justice Sanjay Kishan Kaul will not be on the bench as his last working day is on December 16. The Supreme Court has allowed the Center to file a reply on the amended prayer in this case.
The said petitions will now be heard after eight weeks. The matter has been sent to the CJI for formation of a new bench.
There has been a new twist on the petitions filed regarding changes in the provisions of PMLA and the powers of the Enforcement Directorate. Now a new bench will hear in the Supreme Court. The bench of Justice Sanjay Kishan Kaul, Justice Sanjeev Khanna and Justice Bela Madhurya Trivedi heard this issue for two days.
The bench has given four weeks’ time to the central government to file its reply. The petitioner has also been given four weeks to respond to that reply. But meanwhile, Chief Justice of the bench, Justice Sanjay Kishan Kaul is going to retire on December 25 next month. The last working day will be Friday, December 15. After this there will be Christmas holidays.
Supreme Court will continue to review the powers of the Enforcement Directorate
It is noteworthy that on Wednesday itself, the Supreme Court had taken a big step and said that it will continue to review the powers of the Enforcement Directorate (ED). The Supreme Court again rejected the Centre’s demand. The ED’s provisions regarding arrest, search, seizure, seizure and accepting confessional statements as evidence will continue to be reviewed.
The Supreme Court said that it will continue hearing in this case. He had said that, we may agree or disagree with the Solicitor General but let us start the hearing. The Supreme Court was hearing several petitions filed by accused in various money laundering cases.
Earlier the validity of only two provisions was challenged
The Center had objected saying that earlier the validity of only two provisions was challenged in the petitions, but now many other provisions have been challenged. PMLA is currently a very important law for the country. SG Tushar Mehta said that earlier only two provisions were challenged. When these petitions were filed, not so many sections were challenged. After the petitions were listed before this bench, several amendments were made in these petitions. Initially only Sections 50, 63 were challenged. We had no problem.
He had said that now five more sections have been challenged. We should be given a chance to file our reply before the hearing starts in that case. If the petition is amended after filing, we will have to respond. PMLA is an important legislation for the nation.
On October 18, 2023, the court had also said that it would review the PMLA provisions. The Supreme Court had rejected the Centre’s demand. The demand for not hearing the hearing for the time being was rejected. The Supreme Court had said that investigation of PMLA provisions could be in the national interest. We will hear the petitions filed against the Supreme Court’s decision on the powers of ED under PMLA provisions.
A special bench of the Supreme Court had rejected the Centre’s demand to postpone the review of some PMLA provisions by a month “in the national interest”. SG Tushar Mehta had said that until the international watchdog FATF completes its assessment of India for dealing with money laundering crimes, the hearing should not be held for at least a month in the national interest.
Justice Kaul had said that no one can stop us from hearing
He had also said that the decision of 2022 was of three judges on which a review petition is pending. In such a situation, this bench of three judges of the Supreme Court cannot hear. But the bench of Justice Sanjay Kishan Kaul, Justice Sanjeev Khanna and Justice Bela M Trivedi rejected this argument of the Centre. Justice Sanjay Kishan Kaul had said that no one can stop us from conducting the hearing. During the hearing we will decide whether we can hold the hearing or not.
Actually, a special bench has been formed in the Supreme Court. The bench of Justice Sanjay Kishan Kaul, Justice Sanjeev Khanna and Justice Bela M Trivedi is conducting the hearing.
On July 27, 2022, the process of arrest, seizure and investigation conducted by the Enforcement Directorate (ED) under the Prevention of Money Laundering Act (PMLA) was maintained. The Supreme Court had given its verdict on 242 petitions filed by Karti Chidambaram, son of former Union Minister P Chidambaram and former Maharashtra government minister Anil Deshmukh and others. This decision was given by the bench of Justice AM Khanwilkar, Justice Dinesh Maheshwari and CT Ravi Kumar.
