The Supreme Court on Wednesday agreed to take a relook its July 27 PMLA judgment upholding Enforcement Directorate’s (ED) power to arrest under the stringent law.
The Supreme Court was hearing a review petition on its verdict on the money laundering law, Prevention of Money Laundering Act (PMLA), days after it upheld ED power to arrest under the stringent law.
The Supreme Court on July 27 upheld the ED powers relating to arrest, attachment of property involved in money laundering, search and seizure under the PMLA that were challenged by multiple petitioners including politician Karti Chidambaram.
The top court on Wednesday allowed an application of Congress MP Karti Chidambaram, seeking an open court hearing of his petition to review the top court’s last month’s verdict.
A bench of Chief Justice NV Ramana and Justices Dinesh Maheshwari and CT Ravikumar, which considered the review application of Chidambaram in chambers said, “The application for an oral hearing is allowed. List the matter in the Court on August 25, 2022”.
The top court had on Tuesday, August 23, in a verdict on the application of provisions of Benami Transactions (Prohibition) Amendment Act, 2016 observed that its judgement on the Enforcement Directorate’s powers under the Prevention of Money Laundering Act (PMLA) to take possession of a property before trial in exceptional cases leaves scope for arbitrary application. A three-judge bench headed by Chief Justice N V Ramana said that the ratio concerning Section 8(4) laid down by the PMLA judgement needs further explanation.
In its July 27 verdict, the apex court has said that the direction under Section 8(4) for taking possession of the property in question before a formal order of confiscation is passed should be an exception and not a rule. Section 8(4) allows the ED to take possession of the attached property at the stage of confirmation of provisional attachment made by the adjudicating authority.
(With PTI inputs)
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