Shocking That State Govt Filed Petition Against ED Raid Of TASMAC, Nothing Unusual In Detaining Employees During Search: Madras High Court

The Madras High Court on Wednesday dismissed the allegations made by Tamil Nadu State Marketing Corporation (TASMAC) that its employees and officials were harassed by the Enforcement Directorate while conducting searches at the State agency's headquarters in Chennai.The bench of Justice SM Subramaniam and Justice K Rajasekaran noted that the search was conducted in compliance of Section 17 of the Prevention of Money Laundering Act, and the allegations of violation of employees' fundamental rights appeared to be an afterthought.The court added that it was a matter of procedure for employees to be detained during raids and surprise checks, to prevent destruction of evidence."It is surprising that certain TASMAC officials had given an affidavit that they were unlawfully confined during a search operation. The search operation was conducted by a lawful investigating agency and it is a matter of procedure that during raids and surprise searches, the employees would be detained inside the premises to prevent leakage of information and also prevent any destruction of evidence. Also, it is a government owned company which is a public place and not a private home. So, the cooperation of the employees are essential to conduct a smooth search operation," the court said.The observation was made while dismissing the petitions filed by the State government as well as TASMAC, challenging the ED raid.The Court remarked that while general public has to wait for days and hours to get their work done in government offices, the "entire government machinery had come forward" merely because few public officers were allegedly made to wait in their offices, despite availability of adequate facilities.It took note of the affidavit filed by the ED as per which statements of employees were recorded under Section 17 of PMLA in a phased manner, wherein proper rest, food, interpersonal interactions, leaving or entering premises were ensured. The Court then proceeded to remark,"It is noteworthy that in our country, lakhs of general public from all walks of life visit government offices each day to fight for their basic rights. They wait for hours in government offices to get their work done. In fact for even giving a petition in a government office, a common man have to wait for hours, sometimes days together they have to repeatedly visit the office inspite of other important commitments to get even a basic work done. But these are unavoidable delays and our general public bears with it. But here an entire government machinery has come forward to file a writ petition stating that a few public officers were made to wait for hours in their offices, which we believe has adequate facilities and definitely has basic human necessities."It added that instead of raising such "flimsy arguments", TASMAC officials were duty bound to cooperate with the investigating agencies. "In fact they should be more inclined to cooperate with the investigation to get rid of any such corruption or money laundering that might have happened," the court said.The court was also surprised that the State Government had filed the petitions stating that an Investigating Agency cannot enter and conduct a search in a Government Company."It is shocking that a State Government filed a petition stating that they have been aggrieved. How can a peoples' government be aggrieved because of a search operation conducted in one government owned company? In fact the search operation was conducted to unearth any case of money laundering, if any and to ensure a corruption free operation of TASMAC for which the State government must cooperate with the investigation agency."The court said that if the employees were harassed by the ED, they should have filed individual petitions for the same. It added that if such vague and improper writ petitions by government institutions were entertained, it would lead to utter chaos where each individual in the country would approach the court against any action under the criminal law."These kind of vague and improper writ petitions by Government institutions alleging inhumanity against a statutorily empowered investigating agency ought not to be entertained. This will lead to utter chaos whereby it will lead to complete dilution of the statute itself. Moreover the allegations on the face of it are whimsical and such allegations without any material or proof will obstruct any lawful investigation in future," the court said.The court was also not inclined to accept the State's prayer to prevent ED from entering the State's offices for search and seizure under Section 17 of the Act. The court said that allowing such prayer would amount to declaring that the State of Tamil Nadu alone be exempted from the PMLA which was unjustifiable and devoid of any reasoning. The court also added that the petitioner's submission downplayed a normal search under the law to uncover materials. The court noted that seizing the relevant materials under law, which might...

Shocking That State Govt Filed Petition Against ED Raid Of TASMAC, Nothing Unusual In Detaining Employees During Search: Madras High Court

Upasana Sajeev

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