The Karnataka High Court on Wednesday directed the Enforcement Directorate (ED) not to take “precipitative action” against Devas Multimedia Pvt Ltd based on the proceedings initiated under the Prevention of Money Laundering (PML) Act, 2002 in connection with an alleged scam involving the company in its deal with Antrix Corporation Ltd, a commercial arm of the Indian Space Research Organisation.
Justice A.S. Bopanna passed the interim order on a petition filed by Devas questioning the ED’s show-cause notice on February 20 and a February 27 order of provisional attachment of its mutual funds and bank accounts amounting to around ₹79 crore. But the Court said the order would continue as of now.
Devas contended that the ED had no jurisdiction to invoke the provisions of the PML Act as the offences alleged against the company under the IPC and other laws were brought under the ambit of the Act only in June 2009 and, hence, the ED could not invoke the provisions retrospectively as the deal was done in 2005-06.
