23 March 2024 2:05 PM GMT
Supreme Court judge Justice Ujjal Bhuyan spoke on the need to judiciously use the powers under the Prevention of Money Laundering Act (PMLA) and cautioned that if the law is misused, negative perceptions may rise against the Enforcement Directorate. The nation will suffer if the law is misused, he stressed.
Justice Bhuyan appealed to all stakeholders to apply the PMLA in its true spirit, having regard to the objective of the legislation and keeping in mind the overarching constitutional mandate of Article 21 of the Constitution of India.
Speaking at the recent launch event of the book ' Treatise on PMLA – Law and Practice' by advocate Mr. Akhilesh Dubey, Justice Bhuyan stressed the importance of ensuring that the PMLA (Prevention of Money Laundering Act) is not misused by the authorities.
Highlighting the strict scrutiny adopted by Courts in applying the stringent procedural provisions of an Act like that of the PMLA, Justice Bhuyan ringed a word of caution that it was essential to ensure that no innocent faces injustice in the said process. He called upon all the concerned stakeholders under the PMLA to be mindful of every citizen's fundamental right promised under Article 21- the promise to uphold one's life and protect one's personal liberty.
Buttressing the need to use the powers under PMLA with transparency and objectivity, Justice Bhuyan opined :
Justice Bhuyan referring to the recent observations made by a bench comprising Justices Surya Kant and KV Viswanathan while hearing a writ petition filed by the ED seeking to transfer the investigation of the bribery case against ED officer Ankit Tiwari from the Tamil Nadu Directorate of Vigilance and Anti-Corruption to the Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI). The bench observed that while offenders should not go scot-free, vindictive arrests and mala-fide witch-hunting should also not take place. It also stressed for a need to have guidelines ensuring transparency.
"There may be genuine cases where ED may have to go in, there may be cases where they are brought into mala fide. Some kind of best practices we want. There has to be a mechanism where when a central agency…particularly when the ruling party is different between the Centre and the State. Something has to be evolved so that while genuine cases don't go scot-free merely because it is being handled by the central agency, at the same time there is no mala fide witch-hunting," the bench had observed.
Similarly, last year in August, a bench comprising Justices Sanjay Kishan Kaul and Sudhanshu Dhulia observed that ED cannot be a law unto itself. This remark came while extending the interim protection from coercive action to certain Chhattisgarh government officials in the UP Police FIR over alleged making of duplicate holograms in connection with the liquor scam case.
Justice Kaul remarked “ED (Directorate of Enforcement) cannot be a law unto itself.” and recorded the following in the order: “Learned counsel for the petitioners very fairly states on our query that the aspect has come to the notice of the ED prior in time. Thus, interim order dated 07.08.2023 to continue.”