The Supreme Court on Thursday adjourned the hearing of a petition challenging the constitutional validity of several provisions of the Prevention of Money Laundering Act, 2002 (PMLA). A bench comprising Justices Surya Kant and N. Kotiswar Singh noted that the matter should be listed before a three-judge bench.
Senior Advocate Kapil Sibal, representing the petitioners, informed the Court that the registry had not fixed a specific date for the hearing.
Solicitor General of India (SGI) Tushar Mehta and Additional Solicitor General (ASG) SV Raju requested that the next hearing be scheduled for either the last week of April or the first week of May this year.
The Court adjourned the case to a later date and stated that the counsel would be notified accordingly. The case pertains to a review petition filed by Congress MP Karti Chidambaram, which challenges the Supreme Court’s July 2022 judgment. In that ruling, the Court upheld various provisions of the PMLA.
The July 2022 judgment had confirmed the constitutional validity of key provisions of the PMLA, granting the Enforcement Directorate (ED) broad powers of investigation and arrest. The Court had also distinguished ED inquiries from criminal investigations, stating that the procedural safeguards of the Code of Criminal Procedure (CrPC) do not apply to ED investigations.
Additionally, the judgment ruled that during an ED inquiry, the accused is not entitled to a copy of the Enforcement Case Information Report (ECIR), which the Court determined is an internal document, unlike the First Information Report (FIR), and therefore not required to be shared with the accused under the CrPC.
The Court also upheld the stringent bail conditions under the PMLA, which mandate that the accused must prove their innocence before bail can be granted.
Several other review petitions challenging the July 2022 ruling have been consolidated with this case. The next hearing date has yet to be set by the Court. Advocate Shally Bhasin appeared for Karti Chidambaram, the petitioner in this matter.