ED can summon anyone, it has to honor the summons; Big comment of Supreme Court

The Supreme Court has made a big comment on Tuesday regarding the summons of ED i.e. Enforcement Directorate. The Top Court says that if someone is summoned under Section 50 of PMLA, he will have to respect the summons and also answer it. The special thing is that this comment from the court has come at a time when there are talks about Delhi Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal issuing 8 consecutive summons.

ED had filed a petition in the top court against an order of the Madras High Court. The High Court had stayed the summons issued to K5 DM of Tamil Nadu in the alleged sand mining scam. The Tamil Nadu government had challenged the summons issued by the ED in the High Court, which was later stayed by the Division Bench.

Now ED had approached the Supreme Court against the interim order. The Supreme Court lifted the stay and ordered the district collectors to appear before the ED.

What did the Supreme Court say?

The case was being heard by the bench of Justice Bela M Trivedi and Justice Pankaj Mittal. According to the Bar and Bench report, the bench said, ‘It is observed that the ED can summon any person to produce evidence or be present during the ongoing proceedings under the Act.

It further said, ‘Whoever is issued summons is expected to respect and respond to the ED summons.’

Under Section 50 of PMLA, ED can issue summons to any person whose presence it considers necessary during the investigation.