Supreme Court raises eyebrows over Tamil Nadu government challenging ED summons to District Collectors

The Supreme Court on Friday questioned how the State of Tamil Nadu could have filed a writ petition before the Madras High Court challenging summons issued to five district collectors by the Enforcement Directorate (ED) in connection with a money-laundering case [Directorate of Enforcement vs State of Tamil Nadu and ors]..A bench of Justices Bela M Trivedi and Pankaj Mithal orally observed that the summons could have been challenged by the district collectors themselves, in their personal capacity. The bench also added that government servants are duty bound to respond to such summons and cooperate with probes."How State can file writ petition? Under which law? Against the ED? How State is interested and can file such petitions? ... District collectors can file in individual capacity. Government servants have to respond. How can you say you will not?! ED can probe with regard to scheduled offences as per Section 50 (PMLA)," Justice Trivedi remarked..The summons in question were issued were in connection with the ED's probe into an alleged illegal sand mining scam in Tamil Nadu.In November 2023, the Madras High Court passed an interim order to stay the operation of such summons issued by the ED to five district collectors in Tamil Nadu.The ED then filed an appeal before the Supreme Court to challenge the High Court's order of stay. .The Supreme Court today initially stated that it is inclined to lift the High Court's interim stay on the summons, but eventually proceeded to issue notice in the matter.The Court has sought the response of the Tamil Nadu government and the five district collectors concerned in the matter.The case will be taken up next on Monday, February 26..Additional Solicitor General SV Raju appeared for the ED before the Supreme Court today. Senior Advocates Mukul Rohatgi and Amit Anand Tiwari appeared for the Tamil Nadu government and the State's district collectors, respectively..Rohatgi argued that the district collectors are entitled to move Court for relief in the matter, like how the ED has also filed petitions against the Tamil Nadu government. He added that the collectors are not criminals."Order was passed in November. We are in February. They are not involved, and not supposed to co-operate if the ED acts without jurisdiction. This is an issue of federalism!" Rohatgi submitted.Tiwari added that the ED's summons did not allude to a criminal or scheduled offence..By way of background, the Tamil Nadu government and the five Collectors were summoned by the ED in November.Subsequently, they had jointly filed ten writ petitions challenging the issue of summons and the ED’s power to investigate such offences without the consent of the State government.In the November 2023, the High Court opined that the ED's summons appeared to be part of a "fishing expedition", and that, prima facie, the ED had no jurisdiction to issue the summons to any of the State's district collectors.However, the High Court clarified that it has not imposed any stay on ED’s ongoing investigation in the case.The High Court had also dismissed objections raised by ED on whether the Tamil Nadu government had the locus standi to file a petition to challenge the ED's issue of summons..This order was then challenged before the Supreme Court by the ED.