State of Chhattisgarh Withdraws Plea Filed in Supreme Court Challenging Section 50 of PMLA and ED's Powers

The State of Chhattisgarh on Wednesday withdrew a writ petition filed in the Supreme Court under Article 32 of the Constitution challenging Section 50 of the Prevention of Money Laundering Act, 2002, and the powers of the Enforcement Directorate (ED) conferred by the anti-money laundering statute. 

A bench of Justices Sanjiv Khanna and SVN Bhatti was informed today by a counsel appearing for the petitioner-state that he had instructions to withdraw Chhattisgarh government's plea. The petition had been filed through VMZ Associates. In response, the bench pronounced a short order dismissing the plea as withdrawn -

"Learned counsel for the petitioner states that he has instructions to withdraw the present writ petition. In view of the statement made, the petition is dismissed as withdrawn."

Earlier this year, a bench led by Justice Sanjay Kishan Kaul agreed to hear a plea filed by Congress leader Govind Singh challenging summonses from the Enforcement Directorate despite allegedly not being a part of any criminal proceedings. In his writ petition, Singh challenged Sections 50 and 63 of the Prevention of Money Laundering Act, arguing that these provisions allowing ED officers to summon individuals and record their statements that are legally required to be truthful, violated Articles 20(3) and 21 of the Constitution. Singh also contended that the legality of these sections should be addressed by a larger constitutional bench of the Supreme Court, saying that the issues pertaining to the legality of Sections 50 and 63 were not considered by the Vijay Madanlal Choudhary bench.