A Special Bench of the Supreme Court led by Justice A.M. Khanwilkar is scheduled on Wednesday to pronounce its judgment on the legality of core provisions in the Prevention of Money Laundering Act (PMLA) of 2002, which has been under criticism and often called the government’s “hatchet” law against rival politicians, relatives and dissenting voices.
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Nearly 100 petitions had flooded the Supreme Court even as the frequency and timings of Enforcement Directorate raids and arrests under the PMLA had gained pace all over the country.
The petitions had questioned the almost blanket powers given to the ED for search, seizure, investigation and attachment of assets considered to be the proceeds of crimes listed under PMLA.
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Back-to-back hearings before the Special Bench had seen the to-and-fro of contesting points. The government emphasised the gravity of the offence of money laundering, while the petitioners worked hard to convince the court about the misuse of the law and subversion of constitutional guarantees.
A Finance Ministry report brought on record before the court had shown that the ED conducted 1,700 raids and launched special investigations in 1,569 cases between 2011 and 2020. However, it could secure a conviction in only nine of these cases.
The petitioners had argued that the process was itself the punishment, adding that the assets of genuine victims were attached.
The fundamental purpose of PMLA to investigate the conversion of “illegitimate money into legitimate money” was lost. The Enforcement Case Information Report (ECIR) — an equivalent of the FIR — was considered an “internal document” and not given to the accused. The accused is called upon to make statements that are then treated as admissible in evidence.
Throughout this procedure, the accused does not even know the allegation against him, as the only document that contains the allegation is the ECIR, which is not supplied to the accused persons.