Will Share FIRs & Documents Related To Sand Mining Cases With ED : TN Govt Tells Supreme Court

The matter was adjourned by the Bench of Justices Bela Trivedi and Satish Chandra Sharma after recording ASG SV Raju's submission that while the State has given the details of FIR numbers, some of them are not being downloaded from the website. 

Though the Bench was inclined to dispose of the matter saying that it cannot micromanage, however, it adjourned the matter at the request of ASG. 

Staying the High Court's order, the Supreme Court had earlier said that the Collectors have to appear before the ED and share the necessary documents.

Later, the ED filed a report before the Supreme Court mentioning the documents not provided to them by the Collectors. Apart from this, the investigating agency also told the court that while the District Collectors had appeared before it, they did not produce documents sought by it. The court directed the ED to submit a compliance report to that effect.

Following this, when the matter was listed on August 06, 2024, right at the onset of the proceedings, ED's counsel submitted that the compliance report has been filed. The counsel added that two points in the report have not been complied with including the copy of the FIR.

At this, the Senior Advocate Kapil Sibal, for the State, vehemently countered the same saying that the FIRs have been given. At least, you should put it on affidavit when you make these statements, he submitted.

“Why would we hesitate to give you an FIR. It is a public document anyway and all of them are available online….Just tell us what we have not supplied, your ladyship may record my statement, will be supplied. If we have it, we will supply it.”

In the post-lunch session, ASG submitted that the digital copies have been given and some FIRs are downloading, but the others cannot be. He added that within a week he will give a list of these FIRs which are not being downloaded or which are not furnished. Stating thus, he pleaded with the Court to keep the matter after two weeks.

“Had they told me earlier, I would have done it. What is the point of telling me in Court.,” Sibal said. At this, ASG swiftly responded that there are 7000 FIRs and it will take some time.

In view of this, the Court posted the matter on August 27. Once the order was pronounced, Justice Trivedi could be heard reiterating "Just put an end to this, we cannot micromanage now."

In the order, the bench recorded as follows :

"The learned Additional Solicitor General – Mr. S.V. Raju appearing for the petitioner – Directorate of Enforcement states that the respondents have given the details of the FIR numbers to be downloaded from the website, however, some of them are not being downloaded.

The learned Senior counsel – Mr. Kapil Sibal appearing for the respondents states that the respondents shall furnish all the documents available with them as well as the documents which are available on the website but are not being downloaded."

Background

On February 27, 2024, the Supreme Court suspended an interim order by the Madras High Court that stayed summonses issued to Tamil Nadu district collectors in connection with alleged illegal sand mining-money laundering cases. This interim relief was granted in a special leave petition by the ED against the High Court's November 28, 2023 ruling, which allowed the investigation to continue but stayed the summonses.

Following that, on March 1, ED issued fresh summons to the District Collectors. The Collectors, instead of appearing, sent replies to ED seeking postponement, stating that they were engaged with election-related duties in connection with the upcoming Lok Sabha elections and were discharging social welfare schemes in Districts. The Collectors also stated that they did not have the data related to mining and sought time to collect the same from other offices.

On April 2, the Supreme Court chastised the District Collectors for their non-appearance before ED, expressing that their conduct showed they did not have respect for the Court or the law, much less the Constitution of India. The Collectors were directed to appear personally before the agency, failing which strict action was proposed to be taken.

Post this, when the case was listed Collectors had appeared before the ED. However, it was also pointed out by Sibal that the ED officials called the concerned Collectors at 11 AM and made them sit till 8:30 PM. Deprecating the same, Justice Trivedi said to Hossain, "you can't do it...don't retain them unnecessarily". In the same spirit, Justice Mithal asked ED to not "harass" the Collectors unnecessarily.

Diary No. - 2675/2024

DIRECTORATE OF ENFORCEMENT vs. THE STATE OF TAMIL NADU

Click here to read/ download the order