Supreme Court upholds ED’s power to arrest under PMLA provisions

The Court added that it's not compulsory to provide an Enforcement Case Information Report (ECIR) to the accused which it can't be equated to a primary Information Report (FIR).

In a significant ruling, the Supreme Court Wednesday upheld the constitutional validity of the provisions of the Prevention of cash Laundering Act (PMLA), 2002, referring to the Enforcement Directorate’s power of arrest, attachment, search, and seizure.

Deciding a bunch of petitions, a bench presided by Justice A M Khanwilkar also upheld the reverse burden cast under PMLA on the accused to prove innocence, saying it's an inexpensive nexus with the thing sought to be achieved under the Act.

The ruling held as valid the dual conditions for bail laid down in Section 45 of the Act. the supply says that when the general public prosecutor opposes the bail plea of an accused, the court can grant relief given that it's satisfied that there are reasonable grounds to believe that the accused isn't guilty of such an offence which he's not going to commit any offence if released on bail.

The petitions had also challenged the legality of statements recorded by ED officers under Section 50 of the Act on the bottom of protection against self-incrimination under Article 20(3) of the Constitution. The bench, however, rejected this saying that ED officers aren't police officials and hence the bar under Article 20(3) wouldn't apply.

The top court also rejected arguments against what constitutes the offence of cash laundering under Section 3 of PMLA.

It also held that the Enforcement Case Information Report (ECIR), which is an indoor document of the agency, can't be equated with a primary Information Report (FIR) and so it's not mandatory to produce the identical to the accused during under PMLA proceedings.

The Supreme Court, however, left a choice on the constitutional validity of a number of the amendments made to the Act via a Money Bill in 2019 to a bigger seven-judge bench, which is already seized of comparable questions.