PMLA | Supreme Court Posts Pleas Seeking Reconsideration Of Vijay Madanlal Judgment To July

The Supreme Court today posted to July 2024 the pleas calling for reconsideration of the judgment in Vijay Madanlal Choudhary v. Union of India, which upheld constitutional validity of various provisions of the Prevention of Money Laundering Act (PMLA).

Till such time, the Special Bench of Justices Sanjiv Khanna, MM Sundresh and Bela M Trivedi has permitted petitioners/appellants to file bail applications before appropriate forums, which shall be dealt with in accordance with law, uninfluenced by the fact that the present petitions/appeals are pending before the Supreme Court.

It may be recalled that on November 23, 2023, a Bench of Justices Sanjay Kishan Kaul, Sanjiv Khanna, and Bela M Trivedi which was earlier hearing the instant pleas was dissolved, as the union government sought more time to prepare and Justice Kaul was set to retire in a month. Considering the circumstances, a request was made to the Chief Justice of India DY Chandrachud to constitute another Bench, and it led to the replacement of Justice Kaul by Justice Sundresh.

In proceedings before the earlier Bench, although Solicitor General Tushar Mehta claimed that the 3-Judge bench did not have the prerogative to hear the pleas and or 'sit in appeal' over Coordinate bench's judgment in Vijay Madanlal, the objections were insufficient to persuade the court to defer hearing.

Besides the instant pleas, there is also a review petition pending before the top Court against the Vijay Madanlal judgment, which statedly, is yet to be listed.

At the very outset of the hearing today, Justice Khanna conveyed to the counsels present Bench's intention to have the matters in July.

In response, Sr Adv Kapil Sibal (appearing for some petitioners) said, "there is an element of urgency".

Justice Khanna added, "We have to also...there are so many cases".

Reminding that petitioners have already made submissions, Sibal said, "This matter I've argued". In reply, Justice Khanna said, "No, but my brother (Justice Sundresh) has come...we have to [...] hearing also...very difficult, we were just discussing how to give a shorter date".

Pressing on the urgency aspect, Sibal went on to say, "it's your Lordships' roster, you have to decide...I can only urge that there is a real urgency in this because of factors that your Lordship is aware about".

At this point, Justice Khanna pointed that bail applications had not been refused by the Bench. "Let it be in July, we can't give you a date before that...but one week or two weeks we will give you...one week probably... will finish it off..." the Judge remarked. He further observed that if interim relief was pressed, the matters would not be taken up this way and would rather go to Regular Bench.

At this juncture, ED's counsel conveyed, "they are already approaching the Trial Court".

Hearing this, Justice Khanna turned to Sibal and commented "infact they should be having objections...in some cases, we have passed an interim order...". The judge also asked the status of the review that is pending in connection with the Vijay Madanlal ruling.

Sibal replied that the same has not been listed and that is another issue. He also highlighted that in atleast two matters, orders have been passed to the effect that review of the Vijay Madanlal judgment is infact required.

After hearing the counsels, Justice Khanna dictated as follows:

"List before this Bench subject to orders of Hon'ble the Chief Justice on 23rd, 24th and 25th of July, 2024 (all the matters). In the meanwhile, the state directorate/CBI will file their synopsis not exceeding 7 pages alongwith relied upon judgments with copy to nodal counsel for petitioners/appellants. Notwithstanding pendency of the present petitions/appeals, it will be open to petitioners/appellants to file applications for bail before appropriate forum. Applications, if any, filed will be dealt with in accordance with law, without being influenced  by the fact that petitions/appeals are pending before this Court."

Case Title: Directorate of Enforcement v. M/s Obulapuram Mining Company Private Limited | Criminal Appeal No. 1269 of 2017 (and connected matters)

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