No one should shy away from Enforcement Directorate summons: Kerala High Court

The Kerala High Court recently observed that all citizens should appear before the Enforcement Directorate (ED) if it issues summons to them. [Prasanth P Nair v. Union of India].Justice Devan Ramachandran noted that there are several cases before the Court in which persons persons who were issued summons by ED refused to appear before the investigating agency even once. .The judge said that in his view, everyone, regardless of the post they hold, should respond to summons issued by the ED."Please co-operate with ED. I will control the actions they take against you. Appear before the ED once and come back, I will help you. But don't shy away from summons. It is not just in this case, it is my standard stance. The Supreme Court is also saying that when investigating authorities issue summons, we can't shy away from it. We are all citizens. Even I should go if ED issues summons to me. None of us are above the other. So please answer the summons," Justice Ramachandran orally observed. .The observation was made on March 7 while hearing a petition moved by one Prasanth P Nair who runs an e-commerce concern called 'Webmep Traders'. They provided financial and accounting consultancy services to 'Highrich Online Shoppee' since 2020.Huge financial transactions occurred between the two firms but in August 2022, the transactions between them stopped since the consultancy agreement was not renewed. Subsequently, Highrich came under investigation by the ED and Nair was issued a summons and his bank accounts were frozen. This prompted Nair to approach the High Court to lift the debit freeze on his bank accounts..The ED countered the petition, submitting that an amount of around ₹11.92 crores had been transferred from Highrich to Nair. When summoned to appear before the investigating officer of the ED, Nair sent a letter stating his inconvenience to comply with the summons, the ED said. Citing the seriousness of the matter being investigated, the ED opposed the petition and insisted on Nair's appearance before it. .During the hearing on Thursday, with the consent of both sides, the Court directed Nair to appear before the ED on March 12. A report in this regard was ordered to be submitted to the Court by March 19 when the case will be taken up next. .The petitioner was represented by advocate Shabu Sreedharan. Deputy Solicitor General of India S Manu appeared for the Central government and Central Government Counsel Jaishankar V Nair appeared for ED..[Read Order]