CJI To Confer With Justice Surya Kant On Joint Listing Of Review And Fresh Pleas
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CJI B.R. Gavai said he would speak to Justice Surya Kant on whether to list fresh writ petitions along with review pleas against the 2022 verdict upholding PMLA. Petitioners seek a larger bench reference on ED’s powers.
New Delhi: On Aug 4, Chief Justice of India B.R. Gavai on Monday said he would talk to Justice Surya Kant regarding listing the fresh writ petitions along with the review petitions challenging the 2022 Supreme Court judgment that upheld major provisions of the Prevention of Money Laundering Act (PMLA), especially the powers granted to the Enforcement Directorate (ED).
In the 2022 judgment in the Vijay Madonal Choudhary case, the Supreme Court had validated key PMLA provisions, including those that allow the ED to arrest individuals, conduct searches, and attach properties.
Since then, several review petitions and fresh writ petitions have been filed against the verdict, some even urging the court to send the matter to a larger bench for reconsideration.
On July 31, a three-judge bench headed by Justice Surya Kant, along with Justices Ujjal Bhuyan and N Kotiswar Singh, said it would first consider whether the review petitions are even maintainable before delving into the main issues raised.
However, the bench declined to combine the review petitions with the main writ petitions, leading senior advocate Kapil Sibal to request directions from the CJI.
Sibal mentioned the matter before the CJI-led bench on Monday, asking for both sets of petitions to be heard together.
He specifically referred to the case ED v. M/s Obulapuram Mining Company Private Limitedwhere another three-judge bench was previously formed to decide whether the 2022 judgment should be referred to a larger bench.
That earlier bench consisted of Justices S.K. Kaul, Sanjiv Khanna, and Bela M. Trivedi, and had conducted multiple hearings on the matter.
However, with the retirement of Justice Kaul in November 2023, the bench was dissolved and the case has not been listed since then.
Sibal informed the court,
“The review petitions in the PMLA matter are listed for hearing on August 6 and 7. There was another 3-judge bench qua the PMLA matter where hearing could not be completed since Justice Kaul retired. I mentioned it to the other bench. They said mention it before your lordships for both the matters to be heard together.”
Responding to this, the Chief Justice said,
“If your review is decided, this will also be covered.”
Sibal explained further,
“Those matters were for the purposes of finding out which of the matters should be referred to the larger bench.”
However, Solicitor General Tushar Mehta opposed this request, arguing that the petitioners were trying to bypass the earlier bench’s order, which had clearly stated that only the maintainability of the review petitions would be discussed first.
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Mehta said,
“In review, notice was issued on a limited ground. To come out of that, they started filing other petitions raising all grounds.”
Sibal then questioned,
“Why should both the matters be heard differently?”
To which the CJI asked,
“Suppose, if review itself is found to be maintainable then…”
Sibal replied,
“I can still argue the reference. Because review is a limited jurisdiction. I can still argue some of the issues should be referred to a larger bench.”
The Chief Justice responded with,
“I will speak to the learned judge.”
Earlier, on July 31, the bench led by Justice Surya Kant noted that the ED had submitted three preliminary objections that primarily dealt with whether the review petitions should even be entertained. On the other hand, the petitioners proposed 13 questions for the court’s consideration.
The bench said,
“Since the proposed issues are arising in the review proceedings, we propose to firstly hear the parties on the issue of maintainability of the review petitions, followed by the hearing on the questions proposed to be raised on behalf of the review petitioners.”
It added that the court would determine which questions should finally be taken up only if it decides the review petitions are maintainable.
The case is now scheduled to be heard on August 6 and 7.
Earlier, on May 7, the court had asked both sides to frame the issues that need to be resolved.
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The Centre has argued that the scope of the review petitions should not go beyond two specific issues for which the Supreme Court had issued notices back in August 2022.
According to Solicitor General Tushar Mehta, the bench that took up the review petitions at that time issued notices only on two key points — first, whether the Enforcement Case Information Report (ECIR) must be provided to the accused, and second, whether Section 24 of the PMLA, which shifts the burden of proof onto the accused, is legally valid.
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