The Enforcement Directorate’s (ED’s) power to issue summons under the Prevention of Money Laundering Act (PMLA) does not include the power to arrest a person and does not arise as a natural corollary of requiring a person’s attendance, the Delhi high court has said, while holding that authorities “cannot take a person into custody on their whims and fancies”.
The observations, made in a judgment on Thursday, comes at a time when the Supreme Court is contemplating a review of certain provisions of the PMLA. The top court in July last year, in the Vijay Madanlal Chaudhary case, upheld ED’s powers relating to summons, arrest, property seizure and searches – a ruling that has since been challenged.
The high court bench of justice Anup Jairam Bhabhani was of the view that ED’s power to issue summons “is different and distinct from the power of arrest”. The power relates to Section 50 of the PMLA that deals with summoning witnesses and requiring them to give true information since providing false information attracts punishment under Section 63.
The 2022 judgment was criticised for a disquieting erosion of the safeguards to rights to life, liberty, property and against self-incrimination, especially at a time when a spate of ED raids and other actions against opposition leaders has mired the federal financial crime agency in allegations of politicisation.