SC upholding PMLA amendments will ‘strengthen’ hands of govt: Opposition seeks review

Days after the Supreme Court backed the Enforcement Directorate’s powers under the Prevention of Money Laundering Act (PMLA), several Opposition parties on Tuesday (August 2, 2022) issued a joint statement and expressed apprehensions about the long-term implications of the top court’s verdict. In a joint statement, leaders of as many as 17 parties said that the judgment will “strengthen” the hands of a government that “indulges in political vendetta” to target its opponents. They expressed hope that this “dangerous verdict will be short-lived” and called for a review.

“We place on record our deep apprehension on the long-term implications of the recent Supreme Court judgment upholding, in entirety, the amendments to the Prevention of Money Laundering Act, 2002, without examining whether some of these amendments could have been enacted by way of Finance Act,” they said in the statement.

The parties added that they hold and will always hold the Supreme Court in the highest respect.

“Yet, we are compelled to point out that the judgment should have awaited the verdict of a larger Bench for examining the constitutionality of the Finance Act route to carry out amendments.

“These far-reaching amendments strengthened the hands of a government, indulging in the political vendetta of the worst kind, by using these very amended laws relating to money laundering and investigation agencies, to target its political opponents in a mischievous and malicious manner,” the opposition parties alleged.

“We are also very disappointed that the highest judicial authority, invited to give an independent verdict on the lack of checks and balances in the Act, has virtually reproduced arguments given by the executive in support of draconian amendments. We hope that the dangerous verdict will be short-lived and constitutional provisions will prevail soon,” the opposition leaders said in their joint statement.

Congress, Mamata Banerjee’s Trinamool Congress, DMK, AAP, NCP, Shiv Sena, CPI-M, CPI, IUML, RSP, MDMK, RJD, and RLD were among the parties that signed the joint statement.
Earlier on July 27, the apex court had backed the ED’s powers under PMLA and had said that Section 19, which deals with the power to arrest, does not suffer from the “vice of arbitrariness”. Upholding the validity of some provisions of the PMLA, a bench headed by Justice AM Khanwilkar had also said that Section 5 of the Act relating to the attachment of property of those involved in money laundering is constitutionally valid.

The Supreme Court said the supply of Enforcement Case Information Report (ECIR) in every case to the person concerned is not mandatory. The ECIR is the ED’s equivalent of a police FIR.