SC Upholds Validity of PMLA, says not Mandatory for ED to Disclose Grounds of Arrest

· Well done SC Overturned Own Judgement on PMLA! No Bail, Only Jail

· Khanwilkar and Dinesh Maheshwari do it again after Teesta

· PMLA is a SC certified super law beyond the Constitution and CrPC

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· *The apex court also said the Enforcement Case Information Report (ECIR) cannot be equated with FIR and ECIR is an internal document of ED.

· The supply of ECIR to the accused is not mandatory and only disclosure of reasons during the arrest is enough, said the SC.

· A bench comprising justices AM Khanwilkar, Dinesh Maheshwari, and CT Ravi Kumar delivered the judgment on over 200 petitions challenging various provisions of the PMLA.

· Anil Deshmukh, Karti Chidambaram, and Mehbooba Mufti were among the high-profile petitioners.

· The apex court verdict is likely to affect a huge number of opposition leaders, who are under the scanner of the Central investigating agency.

· The petitioners had contended that the PMLA provisions violate some of the fundamental rights. The petitioners said that the ED's unchecked power to arrest the accused without informing them of grounds of arrest or evidence is not constitutional.

· The law has faced several criticisms, which include non-reporting of grounds of arrest, arrest of persons without ECIR (similar to FIR) copy, strict bail conditions etc.

Earlier during the hearing on the pleas concerning the interpretation of certain PMLA provisions, the apex court had deliberated on section 45 of the Act as well as section 436A of the Code of Criminal Procedure (CrPC) and also on balancing the rights of the accused.

While section 45 of the PMLA deals with the aspect of offences to be cognisable and non-bailable, section 436A of the CrPC deals with the maximum period for which an undertrial prisoner can be detained.

The apex court had also heard arguments on section 19 of the PMLA, which deals with the aspect of power to arrest, as well as section 3 that provides the definition of a money-laundering offence.

ED raids jumped 27 times during 2014-2022 compared to 2004-14: Govt

Meanwhile, in a reply in the Rajya Sabha on Tuesday, the government said that raids carried out by the Enforcement Directorate during 2014-2022 saw a nearly 27-fold increase to 3,010 as compared to 112 searches between 2004 and 2014.

Minister of state for finance Pankaj Chaudhary informed the Rajya Sabha in a written reply that the increased number of searches were conducted "in order to dispose of pending investigation in old cases and to complete investigation in new cases in a time- bound manner under the PMLA" and that complex investigations in cases, which have multiple accused, require multiple searches leading to increase in the numbers of such actions.

Quick Edit: ED needs to improve its performance

The Prevention of Money Laundering Act (PMLA) was enacted in 2002, but implemented from July 1, 2005.

The Congress-led United Progressive Alliance (UPA) was in power between 2004 and 2014 while the BJP-led National Democratic Alliance (NDA) government came into power from the middle of 2014.

Union minister Chaudhary was responding to a question from Shiv Sena MP Priyanka Chaturvedi who asked whether ED raids have gone up almost 90 per cent from 2014 and if the raid-to-complaint ratio of ED cases has gone down drastically from 2014.

"During the first nine years of administration of PMLA, a small number of searches (112) were carried out which resulted in attachment of proceeds of crime of Rs 5,346.16 crore and filing of 104 prosecution complaints.

"During the period, trial court has not convicted any accused for the offence of money laundering or confiscated any property under PMLA," the minister said while providing figures for the period from 2004-05 to 2013-14 fiscals.

Chaudhary then provided data for the eight financial years between 2014-15 and 2021-22.