A new three-judge Bench of the Supreme Court will hear review petitions challenging the Court’s July 2022 judgment in Vijay Madanlal Choudhary v. Union of India, which upheld the constitutional validity of several provisions conferring wide powers on the Enforcement Directorate (ED) under the Prevention of Money Laundering Act, 2002 (PMLA).
The Bench will comprise Chief Justice of India (CJI) Surya Kant and Justice Joymalya Bagchi and Justice V Mohana. The decision to assign the matter to the new Bench was taken today after all parties consented to the arrangement.
The review petitions were earlier listed before a Bench comprising CJI Surya Kant and Justice Ujjal Bhuyan and Justice NK Singh. The CJI explained that listing the matter before the original Bench would require breaking up three other existing Benches, as Justices Bhuyan and Singh are now sitting on different Benches.
Solicitor General Tushar Mehta and Senior Advocate Kapil Sibal consented to the new Bench arrangement. The Court directed that the matter be heard by the three-judge Bench, citing the urgency involved, and said a hearing date would be fixed.
The review petitions challenge the correctness of the July 2022 Vijay Madanlal Choudhary judgment, delivered by a three-judge Bench of Justice AM Khanwilkar, Justice Dinesh Maheshwari and Justice CT Ravikumar on a batch of 241 petitions challenging various provisions of the PMLA.
The 2022 judgment upheld the validity of several key provisions, including those relating to the definition of money laundering, attachment of property, search and seizure, search of persons, arrest powers, reverse burden of proof, trial by Special Courts and the stringent twin conditions for bail under Section 45. It also upheld Section 50, which empowers ED officials to record statements.
The Court further held that supplying the Enforcement Case Information Report (ECIR) to an accused is not mandatory, observing that the ECIR is an internal document of the ED and cannot be equated with an FIR.
The judgment had also overruled the 2017 decision in Nikesh Tarachand Shah v. Union ofIndia, in which a Division Bench comprising Justice Sanjay Kishan Kaul and Justice Rohinton Nariman had struck down the twin conditions for bail under Section 45 of the PMLA.
The 2022 ruling subsequently faced criticism and resulted in several review petitions. The petitioners have primarily questioned the reverse burden of proof under the PMLA, the denial of a mandatory right to receive the ECIR and the stringent bail conditions under Section 45.
The ED has opposed the maintainability of the review petitions, raising questions including whether the petitioners have demonstrated an “error apparent on the face of the record”, whether the reviews amount to appeals in disguise, and whether, in view of the Court’s August 25, 2022 order, the review is confined to the issues concerning supply of the ECIR and the constitutional validity of Section 24’s reverse burden of proof.
The post New Supreme Court Bench to hear review petitions challenging 2022 PMLA verdict appeared first on India Legal.