Published on: 29 July 2023 at 22:25 IST
Court: Supreme Court
Citation: Vijay Madanlal Choudhary V. Union of India (2022)
Honourable Supreme Court of India has held that Enforcement Directorate is not obligated to provide Enforcement Case Information Report (ECIR) to person. It is held that Enforcement Directorate at the time of arrest, is only obligated to disclose the grounds of such arrest to such person. It is held that ECIR cannot be equated with an FIR, thus ECIR is not mandatorily to be supplied to the accused person as per the provisions of Code of Criminal Procedure, 1973.
458. The next issue is : whether it is necessary to furnish copy of ECIR to the person concerned apprehending arrest or at least after his arrest? Section 19(1) of the 2002 Act postulates that after arrest, as soon as may be, the person should be informed about the grounds for such arrest. This stipulation is compliant with the mandate of Article 22(1) of the Constitution. Being a special legislation and considering the complexity of the inquiry/investigation both for the purposes of initiating civil action as well as prosecution, non-supply of ECIR in a given case cannot be faulted.
The ECIR may contain details of the material in possession of the Authority and recording satisfaction of reason to believe that the person is guilty of money-laundering offence, if revealed before the inquiry/investigation required to proceed against the property being proceeds of crime including to the person involved in the process or activity connected therewith, may have deleterious impact on the final outcome of the inquiry/investigation. So long as the person has been informed about grounds of his arrest that is sufficient compliance of mandate of Article 22(1) of the Constitution.
Moreover, the arrested person before being produced before the Special Court within twenty-four hours or for that purposes of remand on each occasion, the Court is free to look into the relevant records made available by the Authority about the involvement of the arrested person in the offence of money-laundering. In any case, upon filing of the complaint before the statutory period provided in 1973 Code, after arrest, the person would get all relevant materials forming part of the complaint filed by the Authority under Section 44(1)(b) of the 2002 Act before the Special Court.
Drafted By Abhijit Mishra
