PMLA: Supreme Court to hear review petitions against Vijay Mandanlal judgment on November 27

The review petitions against the July 2022 judgment of the Supreme Court in Vijay Madanlal Choudhary v. Union of India upholding the validity of the provisions of the Prevention of Money Laundering Act (PMLA) will be heard by the top court on November 27 [Karti P Chidambaram v Directorate of Enforcement]

A Bench of Justices Surya Kant, CT Ravikumar and Ujjal Bhuyan on Thursday adjourned the hearing after it was told by lawyers briefing Senior Advocate Kapil Sibal that they are seeking an adjournment as the senior counsel was arguing a different case before another Bench.

The petitions before the Bench have questioned the correctness of the Court's decision in Vijay Madanlal Choudhary v. Union of India, in which the validity of the PMLA was upheld.

The July 2022 verdict was rendered by a three-judge Bench on a batch of 241 petitions challenging the validity of the law.

Before the Vijay Madanlal ruling was delivered, a Division Bench of Justices Sanjay Kishan Kaul and Rohinton Nariman had struck down Section 45(1) of the PMLA to the extent it imposed two additional conditions for bail. This verdict was pronounced in November 2017 in the case of Nikesh Tarachand Shah v. Union of India.

However, the Nikesh Tarachand decision was overruled in July 2022 by the three-judge Bench of Justices AM Khanwilkar, Dinesh Maheshwari and CT Ravikumar in the Vijay Madanlal Choudhary case.

In that ruling, the Court upheld the validity of several provisions of the PMLA, including 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 Supreme Court 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).

The 2022 ruling invited vehement criticism from various quarters and led to several review applications being filed, which are now slated to be heard on November 27.