Tanisha Rana
Published on: 22nd August, 2022 at 20:38 IST
A review petition has been filed before the Supreme Court against it’s judgement dated July 27 validating the constitutional validity of provisions of the Prevention of Money Laundering Act (PMLA) in the case of Vijay Madanlal Choudhury vs. Union of India.
The impugned judgment upheld the provisions related to power of arrest, search, seizure and attachment, use of statements to the ED as admissible evidence, and non-requirement to supply Enforcement Case Information Report (ECIR) conferred on the Enforcement Directorate by the Prevention of Money Laundering Act, 2002. This led to the rendering of the Code of Criminal Procedure (CrPC) inapplicable in money laundering cases.
Today, the plea regarding review petition of this impugned judgment was mentioned before Chief Justice of India NV Ramana and agreed to list the matter in due course before the top court.
The three-judge bench comprising of Justices AM Khanwilkar, Dinesh Maheshwari and CT Ravikumar gave the judgment on July 27, 2022.
The judgment upheld powers of ED’s power of arrest, attachment, search and seizure and thus, upheld the constitutionality of provisions of Sections 5, 8(4), 15, 17 and 19 of the PMLA.
The verdict given by the SC in its judgment saw stringent bail conditions in money-laundering cases being upheld, which was in variance with previous SC decisions.
Various critics have argued that the impugned judgment is against the basic protection given to citizens by Article 20 and 21 of the Constitution.