A review petition has been filed before the Supreme Court against its July 27 judgment in Vijay Madanlal Choudhary vs Union of India which upheld the power of arrest, attachment and search and seizure conferred on the Enforcement Directorate by the Prevention of Money Laundering Act, 2002. The plea was mentioned before CJI NV Ramana today and will be listed in due course. Through...
A review petition has been filed before the Supreme Court against its July 27 judgment in Vijay Madanlal Choudhary vs Union of India which upheld the power of arrest, attachment and search and seizure conferred on the Enforcement Directorate by the Prevention of Money Laundering Act, 2002.
The plea was mentioned before CJI NV Ramana today and will be listed in due course.
Through the impugned judgment, a three-judge bench Bench comprising Justices A.M. Khanwilkar, Dinesh Maheshwari and C.T. Ravikumar upheld the constitutionality of the provisions of Sections 5, 8(4), 15, 17 and 19 of the PMLA, which relate to the powers of ED's power of arrest, attachment, search and seizure.
The Court also upheld the reverse burden of proof under Section 24 of the Act and said that it has "reasonable nexus" with the objects of the Act.
The Court also upheld the "twin-conditions" for bail in Section 45 of the PMLA Act and said that the Parliament was competent to amend the said provision in 2018 even after the Supreme Court's judgment in the Nikesh Tharachand Shah case (which had struck down the twin conditions).
The bench said that the Parliament is competent to amend Section 45 in the present form to cure the defects pointed out in the Supreme Court judgment.
Read summary of the judgment here.