The Supreme Court agreed to list a plea which seeks a review of its order upholding the Enforcement Directorate’s (ED) powers related to to arrest, attachment of property involved in money laundering, search and seizure under the Prevention of Money Laundering Act (PMLA).
A bench headed by Chief Justice N V Ramana said, ‘okay, we will list it,” when the plea was mentioned before it. It is common experience the world over that money laundering can be a “threat” to the good functioning of a financial system, the SC had observed in July when upholding the validity of certain provisions of the PMLA, emphasising that it is not an “ordinary offence”.
The Centre has insisted that money laundering as an offence is a threat to national security as it is committed not only by businessmen but also by terror organisations.
A bench headed by Justice A M Khanwilkar had said that authorities under the 2002 Act are “not police officers as such” and the Enforcement Case Information Report (ECIR) cannot be equated with an FIR under the Code of Criminal Procedure (CrPC), adding that supply of an ECIR copy in every case to the person concerned is not mandatory. It is enough if the ED, at the time of arrest, discloses the grounds of such an arrest. The petitioners in the case had raised the issue that the contents of ECIR were not disclosed to those accused.
The court’s judgement came after over 200 petitions were filed by individuals and other entities questioning various provisions of the PMLA, a law which the opposition has often claimed has been weaponised by the government to harass its political adversaries.
(With PTI inputs)
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