ED v Mamata Banerjee : Live Updates From Supreme Court Hearing

Sibal: The moment your lordships were to even lay down that law every officer in discharge of his public functions the moment is obstructed will claim violation of a fundamental right. That will not be proper.

Sibal: and here is claiming it as an officer of the ED not in any other capacity. So where is the question of a fundamental right here?

Sibal: having been appointed by the central government the director cannot have a fundamental right. The grief party is the central government which cannot file an article 32 or 226 petition. The individual can certainly file but not under article 32, only under section 221 BNS.

Sibal: it is their own case that in the discharge of the statutory duties certain offences under the BNS were committed. That is not the basis for a fundamental right. The PMLA itself demonstrate that their powers flow from the statute not the constitution

Sibal: they are not talking about fundamental rights. It is their own case that they were performing their statutory duties which are frustrated. They say they were acting strictly in discharge of statutory duties

Sibal reads ED's petition: "retaliatory FIRs deliberately registered against ED officers only with object of intimidating them and deterring performance of functions under PMLA which is in the teeth of articles 14 as well as 21."

Sibal: where do articles 14 or 21 come in here?

Sibal: otherwise it will open a pandora's box. He has no fundamental right to investigate. It is a statutory right and violation of that right is not violation of a fundamental right

Sibal: if a public officer is being obstructed from performing his duties he cannot file article 32 petition. He also can't file 226 petition. There will be a prosecution launched for the obstruction for violating his right to discharge his functions

J Mishra: please concentrate on the fundamental rights of the officers of the ED with whom the offence has been committed. If you only concentrate on ED, ED, ED and forget the second petition which is preferred by the individual officers who were the victim of that offence

Sibal: at this point the violation of fundamental right cannot be assumed. Only after there is an investigation and if the investigation is not moving forward then they can say that fundamental right is being violated