Coal Block Scam | Whether Restriction On Seeking Stay Of Probe, Trial Applicable To PMLA Cases? Supreme Court To Consider

The Supreme Court on Monday (February 26) called for a response from the Directorate of Enforcement (ED) on the issue as to whether bar imposed by the Court's earlier decision, of any prayer for stay/impeding progress of investigation/trial in Coal Block Allocation cases being maintainable only before it, is applicable to orders passed on complaints under the Prevention of Money Laundering Act (PMLA) as well.

The Bench of Justices Abhay S Oka and Ujjal Bhuyan issued notice on the limited aspect, after its attention was drawn to a three-Judge Bench decision of the Court in Girish Kumar Suneja v. Central Bureau of Investigation (2017), where the Court refused to modify the earlier order directing that prayer towards stay/impeding progress of investigation/trial in Coal Block Allocation cases be made only before the Supreme Court.

It may be recalled that in Manohar Lal Sharma v. Principal Secretary (2014) ["Coal Block Allocation cases"], the Supreme Court held the allocation of Coal Blocks between 1993 and 2011 (except those made through competitive bidding) invalid. During the hearing of the cases, an order was passed in July, 2014, para 10 whereof was to the following effect:

"We also make it clear that any prayer for stay or impeding the progress in the investigation/trial can be made only before this Court and no other Court shall entertain the same.”

In Girish Kumar Suneja, the issue regarding interpretation and effect of para 10 of the above order was raised, when the three-Judge Bench declined to revisit/modify the order passed in Manohar Lal Sharma. It was noted that directions similar to those contained in para 10 were passed in Public Interest Litigation v. Union of India (2G Spectrum Scam cases); they were called into question (ref: Shahid Balwa v. Union of India) but not interfered with based on the view that the order was permissible under Article 136 read with Article 142 of the Constitution.

In this backdrop, the present petitioners approached the top Court aggrieved by a Special Court order framing charges in furtherance of a PMLA complaint in the Coal Block Allocation cases. The Court shall now consider whether the bar imposed by para 10 of the order in Manohar Lal Sharma is applicable to PMLA cases as well.

Counsels for petitioners: AoR Mahfooz Ahsan Nazki; Advocates Polanki Gowtham, Rajeswari Mukherjee, Meeran Maqbool and Archita Nigam

Case Title: Potluri Vara Prasad & Ors. v. Directorate of Enforcement & Ors., Special Leave to Appeal (Crl) No.2213 of 2024

Click here to read the order