The Supreme Court on Wednesday posted for October 16, the hearing on a batch of petitions seeking the review of its July 27, 2022, judgment upholding the stringent provisions of Prevention of Money Laundering Act, 2002 limited to two aspects – denial of Enforcement Case Information Report (ECIR) by the ED while arresting an accused in an alleged money laundering case and the presumption of innocence of the accused.
A bench headed by Justice Surya Kant adjoined the hearing and posted it for October 16, on the request of the Solicitor General Tushar Mehta who told the court that there are nine petitions and the Centre has responded to only one and needed time to file replies to other eight pleas.
However, senior advocate Kapil Sibal appearing for Karti P Chidambaram strongly opposed the request for adjournment saying that eight pleas, in which Solicitor General wants to file reply, are only impleadment application and there is nothing on merits.
However, Sibal yielded and urged the court to list the matter in the next week with a caveat that there be no further adjournment. He said that the matter is pending far too long. But the Solicitor General Mehta sought more time and finally the court agreed to hear the matter on October 16, 2024.
The plea for the review of July 27, 2022, judgment upholding the stringent provisions of Prevention of Money Laundering Act, 2002 – which in the legal circles is known by the name of the main petitioner Vijay Madanlal Choudhary – is listed before a bench of Justices Surya Kant, C T Ravikumar and Ujjal Bhuyan.
Justice C T Ravikumar was part of the three-judge bench headed by Justice A M Khanwilkar (since retired) and presently the Chairperson of the Lokpal of India. The third judge on the bench was Justice Dinesh Maheshwari (who too has since retired).
The top court by its July 27, 2022, judgment had upheld the validity of various stringent provisions of the Prevention of Money Laundering Act, 2002, empowering the Directorate of Enforcement (ED) to arrest, provisionally attach the properties suspected to be the proceeds of crime.
The two aspects arising from the July 27, 2022, judgment that will be considered by the bench headed by Justice Surya Kant include the denial of ECIR by the Directorate of Enforcement while arresting an alleged accused and presumption of innocence of an accused till convicted.
Earlier a top court bench comprising Chief Justice N V Ramana, Justice Dinesh Maheshwari (both since retired) and Justice C T Ravikumar had on August 25, 2022, framed these two issues arising from the petitions seeking a relook at the July 27, 2022, judgment.
On July 27, 2022, the top court had said that the amended provisions of PMLA Act, 2002 do not suffer from the vice of arbitrariness and unconstitutionality.
Observing that money laundering is an offense against the sovereignty and integrity of the country, the top court had said, “The classification or grouping of offences (including minor compoundable offences) for treating the same as relevant for constituting an offence of money laundering is a matter of legislative policy… the Parliament in its wisdom had perceived the cumulative effect of the process or activity concerning the proceeds of crime generated from such criminal activities as being likely to pose threat to the economic stability, sovereignty and integrity of the country and thus, grouped them together for reckoning it as an offence of money laundering, …”