ED, Centre face Supreme Court wrath for taking anti-PMLA stance
Supreme Court on Wednesday chastised the Centre and Enforcement Directorate (ED) for making arguments contrary to the provisions of Prevention of Money Laundering Act (PMLA) in a bid to oppose bail pleas of accused.
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Coming down heavily on the Centre and ED, a bench headed by justice Abhay Oka verbally observed «this is a clear intention on the part of the government to see that by hook or by crook bail is denied and therefore such submissions are made».
The bench observed that such a stance taken by the government showed its belief that an accused arrested under PMLA has to be denied bail under any circumstance.
«If the Union of India is to make a submission contrary to its own statute...there is no question of communication gap. We will not tolerate such conduct on the part of the Union of India to make submissions expressly contrary to statute. We will never appreciate such submission made by the Union of India,» the bench verbally remarked.
The development took place during the resumed hearing of a plea challenging denial of bail to a woman accused of money laundering. The bench had last month taken strong exception to ED's argument that rigorous bail conditions under section 45 of PMLA would apply to women, sick, infirm and persons under 16 years of age.
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