NEW DELHI: The Supreme Court has reconstituted a three-judge bench to decide if its 2022 verdict upholding the Enforcement Directorate’s powers to arrest and attach property under the Prevention of Money Laundering Act (PMLA) needs reconsideration.The reconstituted bench of Justice Surya Kant, Justice Ujjal Bhuyan and Justice N Kotiswar Singh will take up a batch of petitions seeking a review of the 2022 verdict. The matter is listed for hearing on May 7. Earlier, a bench of Justice Kant, Justice Bhuyan and Justice CT Ravikumar was hearing the matter. Justice Ravikumar superannuated on January 5.On March 6, after the pleas were listed before a two-judge bench, Justice Kant told the lawyers appearing in the matter that it was wrongly listed and assured them that a new three-judge bench would shortly take up the issue.In its Vijay Madanlal Choudhary judgment delivered on July 27, 2022, the top court in July 2022 upheld the ED powers of arrest and attachment of property involved in money laundering, search and seizure under the PMLA.The court delivered its verdict on a batch of petitions challenging the process of arrest, investigation, seizure carried out by the probe agency, ED and seeking interpretation of provisions of the PMLA.In August that year, the top court agreed to hear pleas seeking review of its verdict and observed that two aspects — not providing an Enforcement Case Information Report (ECIR) and reversal of the presumption of innocence – “prima facie” required reconsideration.Observing it was common the world over that money laundering was a “threat” to the good functioning of a financial system, the apex court upheld the validity of certain provisions of the PMLA, underlining it was not an “ordinary offence”.
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