Supreme Court to hear review petitions against PMLA verdict on August 28

The Supreme Court will begin hearing on August 28 the review petitions that have sought a reconsideration of the Court's 2022 decision to uphold the validity of the Prevention of Money Laundering Act (PMLA) [Karti P Chidambaram v Directorate of Enforcement]..A Bench of Justices Surya Kant, CT Ravikumar and Ujjal Bhuyan today sought common compilations of pleadings from the parties involved and proposed to start hearing the matter around 11 AM on August 28..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.Two of the three judges who delivered the judgment have since retired, leaving only Justice CT Ravikumar to be part of the Bench that will hear the review petitions.Congress leader, Karti Chidambaram was among those who filed the review petitions. The Court had issued notice to the Central government in the matter in August 2022. Representing the review petitioners today, Senior Advocate Kapil Sibal argued that the Vijay Madanlal ruling contained errors that warranted reconsideration.Justice Bhuyan noted that the court had previously identified two issues that needed prima facie consideration. Justice CT Ravikumar, meanwhile, noted that the Court would have to ensure that the review petition is not an appeal in disguise.Solicitor General (SG) Tushar Mehta requested additional time to prepare, stating that the listing of the matter came to his attention only late last night. He also maintained that there were no errors in the Vijay Madanlal judgment.The Court initially suggested that the matter could be heard on August 21. However, on SG Mehta's request, the matter has been listed next on August 28. "We will start on August 28... Please keep yourself free. Some legal issues where there is some error as per our understanding, we will see," Justice Kant said. .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 the July 2022 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 August 28.."Very unfortunate": Justice Rohinton Nariman on Supreme Court 3-judge bench overruling his earlier judgment on PMLA bail