Supreme Court on 03.10.2023 passed an order in the matter of one Special Leave Petition filed by one Pankaj Bansal versus Union of India as the said case was arisen from Punjab and Haryana High Court and Apex court protected the Constitutional Rights of the citizen, person, accused who has been getting arrested by the Office of Enforcement Directorate in so called Money Laundering Cases governed under PMLA Act without following strict provisions of section 19 ( 1 ) of the PMLA Act which strictly directs the ED Office to provide the grounds of the arrest to the arrested person Forthwith, immediately so the person can engage his Lawyer to defend the case. Otherwise earlier the ED officials were not providing the Grounds of Arrest at the time of arrest and later on prepare the case record, which was struck down by the Supreme Court by way of passing the correct legal order on 03.10.2023.
Thereafter the ED Office in order to challenge the said Order of the Supreme Court in December 2023 had filed REVIEW PETITION before the said Bench of Judges who passed the said earlier order on 03.10.2023 and when the said Review Petition came up for hearing before the Bench of Justice Shri. Sanjay Kumar and Shri A. S. Bopanna J. again on 20.03.2024 their Lordship in the their Chamber heard the Petition of ED and after hearing the case Judges passed an order on 22.03.2023 and dismissed the said Review Petition of the ED with proper reasoning and directed ED to follow the strict law of PMLA Act over money laundering case and its bail issues. Enforcement Directorate now may be losing their Arbitrariness, Unconstitutional approach of arresting the person without giving NO GROUNDS of arrest at the time of their arrest and may have learnt a solid lesson that in the Democracy the Constitutional Fundamental Rights are of more important than the power of the Executives like Central Governments Enforcement Directorate to book any person as per their Suitability.
Supreme Court while delivering the said judgment on 03.10.2023 had considered the Judgment of Chagan Bhujbal which was passed by Bombay High Court on 04.12.2016 and also held that the SAID JUDGMENT DOES NOT HOLD THE CORRECT LAW and person who is illegally arrested by the ED need to released by the Court FORTHWITH. It is really bad luck to the case of Chagan Bhujbal who remained to be in custody for 16 months more just due to not getting proper legal order on 04.12.2016 whereas he was allegedly arrested by the office of ED of not giving him grounds of arrest at the time of his arrest on 04.03.2016. Subsequently he was granted bail by the Bombay High Court presided by His Lordship Justice Shri. P. M. Deshmukh on 04.05.2018.
Let the Nation be united against the draconian provisions of law such as the case of PMLA Act and UAPA Act, and public must agitate legally against the issue of Unconstitutional Manner of the Government in the subject of arrest of the citizen, person and must raise Voice against them to see and protect the RULE OF LAW AND GOOD GOVERNENCE in our Large Democratic Country.
Issued for public interest by Ad. Anil Bugde.
