[BREAKING] PMLA Judgment: Supreme Court allows open court hearing in review petition

The Supreme Court on Wednesday granted open court hearing in the review petition filed by Congress lawmaker Karti Chidambaram challenging the top court's July 27 verdict upholding the validity of the Prevention of Money Laundering Act (PMLA) [Karti P Chidambaram v. The Directorate of Enforcement]..A bench of Chief Justice of India NV Ramana and Justices Dinesh Maheshwari and CT Ravikumar considered the petition in chambers today and ordered open court hearing which will take place tomorrow."The application for oral hearing is allowed. List the matter in court on August 25, 2022," the order said..The Supreme Court had, on July 27, upheld the validity of provisions of PMLA.The verdict saw stringent bail conditions in money-laundering cases being upheld, in variance with earlier Supreme Court decisions..The Court had also upheld the validity of Sections 3 (definition of money laundering), 5 (attachment of property), 8(4) [taking possession of attached property), 17 (search and seizure), 18 (search of persons), 19 (powers of arrest), 24 (reverse burden of proof), 44 (offences triable by special court), 45 (offences being cognizable and non-bailable and twin conditions for grant of bail by court) and 50 (statements made to ED officials).The judgment under review also held that the supply of Enforcement Case Information Report (ECIR) under PMLA proceedings is not mandatory since ECIR is an internal document and cannot be equated to a First Information Report (FIR).."ECIR cannot be equated with FIR and ECIR is an internal document of ED. Supply of ECIR to accused is not mandatory and only disclosure of reasons during arrest is enough. Even the ED manual is not to be published since it is an internal document," the judgment had said.However, the Court had held that question of enactment of amendments in 2019 to PMLA Act as money bill has to be decided by a larger bench of seven judges before whom the same question is already pending.The judgment was panned by many in the legal community as denuding fundamental right to liberty under Article 21 of the Constitution. Interestingly, another three-judge bench of the apex court had yesterday said that the ratio of the PMLA verdict with regard to Section 8(4) of PMLA has left scope for arbitrary application.A bench of Chief Justice of India NV Ramana and Justices Krishna Murari and Hima Kohli said that the ratio concerning Section 8(4) laid down by the PMLA judgment in Vijay Madanlal Choudary & Ors v. Union of India would need further expounding to prevent arbitrary application.The observations were made in a judgment striking down various provisions of the Benami Transactions (Prohibition) Act of 1988 and the 2016 amendments to the 1988 Act as unconstitutional..Read more about PMLA judgment here.