Supreme Court refuses to review judgment directing ED to give written grounds of arrest to PMLA accused

The Supreme Court recently rejected a plea by the Central government to review a judgment which had held that the Enforcement Directorate (ED) must furnish written grounds of arrest to persons arrested in money laundering cases [Union of India and ors vs Pankaj Bansal]..A bench of Justices AS Bopanna and PV Sanjay Kumar said that no case for review was made out."We have carefully gone through the review petitions and the connected papers. We do not find any error, much less apparent, in the order impugned, warranting its reconsideration. The review petitions are dismissed accordingly," the Court held on March 20..The judgment under challenge was passed in October 2023. In that verdict, the Supreme Court had made it clear that accused persons arrested in connection with cases under the Prevention of Money Laundering Act (PMLA) have a constitutional and statutory right to be informed of the grounds of their arrest.The Court held that a mere reading of the grounds of arrest would not be an adequate compliance with the mandate under Article 22(1) (protection against arrest and detention) of the Constitution and Section 19(1) of the PMLA.The Court opined that it would be essential for the arrested person to be aware of the grounds of arrest, as he or she is later required to meet the stringent conditions of bail under Section 45 of the PMLA. Sensitive case information found in the grounds of arrest, if any, can always be redacted and the accused can be furnished with the edited copy, the Court added..ED must supply grounds of arrest to PMLA accused in writing: Supreme Court.The Court proceeded to hold that the grounds of arrest so furnished to accused persons must be in written form.The Court noted that in certain parts of the country, authorised persons inform the accused of the grounds of arrest by furnishing the same in writing while in some places, the authorized officer only reads out or permits the reading of the contents of the grounds of arrest. It further explained that in the event such grounds of arrest are only orally read out to the arrested person and if this fact is later disputed in a given case, it may boil down to the word of the arrested person against the word of the authorized officer as to whether or not there is due and proper compliance.Disclosing the grounds of arrest would not only apprise the arrested person of why he/she is being arrested, but also enable such person to seek legal counsel and present a case for bail, the Court added.Pertinently, the top court had also observed that the ED was not expected to be vindictive in its conduct and that the Central agency must act with the highest degree of dispassion and fairness.The top court has now declined to reconsider its findings in this judgment. .On a related note, months after the October 2023 verdict, another bench of Justices Bela M Trivedi and Satish Chandra Sharma had opined that there would be no violation of the PMLA if the ED informs accused about the grounds of arrest in writing within 24 hours of his arrest. This judgment was rendered in December 2023. .[Read order on review petition]