A bench of Supreme Court Justice AM Khanwilkar, Justice Dinesh Maheshwari and CT Ravi Kumar will deliver this important decision.

New Delhi :

The Supreme Court

will pronounce its verdict on Wednesday

on petitions challenging the process of arrest, seizure and investigation conducted by the Enforcement Directorate (ED) under the Prevention of Money Laundering Act (PMLA) .

SC will pronounce its verdict on 242 petitions including Karti Chidambaram, son of former Union Minister P Chidambaram and Anil Deshmukh, former minister of Maharashtra government.

A bench of Justice AM Khanwilkar, Justice Dinesh Maheshwari and CT Ravi Kumar will pronounce this verdict.

The petitions have challenged the provisions of the Prevention of Money Laundering Act (PMLA).

The petitions have challenged the wide range of powers available to the Enforcement Directorate (ED) for search, arrest, seizure, investigation and attachment of proceeds of offenses under the PMLA.

It has been said that these provisions violate fundamental rights. 

Several senior lawyers, including Kapil Sibal, Abhishek Manu Singhvi and Mukul Rohatgi, argued before the SC on various aspects related to the possible misuse of the recent PMLA amendments.

Stringent bail conditions, non-reporting of grounds of arrest, arrest of persons without ECIR (similar to FIR) copy, broad definition of money laundering and proceeds of offence, and statements made by accused during investigation to be treated as evidence in trial The law has been criticized on many aspects.

On the other hand, the Center had defended the provisions in the Supreme Court.

The central government told the Supreme Court that Rs 18,000 crores of Vijay Mallya, Nirav Modi and Mehul Choksi have been returned to the banks. 

Cases worth Rs 67,000 crore in the Prevention of Money Laundering Act (PMLA) cases are pending in the Supreme Court.

Solicitor General Tushar Mehta appeared on behalf of the Centre.

Tushar Mehta said, "4,700 PMLA cases are being investigated by the Enforcement Directorate (ED). The number of cases taken up for investigation is increasing every year in the last five years. There were 111 cases in 2015-16, 2020 In -21 this has gone up to 981. During the last five years (2016-17 to 2020-21) 33 lakh FIRs were registered for such offenses but only 2,086 cases were investigated under PMLA. UK (7,900), Fewer cases for investigation under PMLA than annual cases under Money Laundering Act in US (1,532), China (4,691), Austria (1,036), Hong Kong (1,823), Belgium (1,862) and Russia (2,764) Enforcement Directorate (ED) till date 4,

Investigated 700 cases and arrested only 313 people for alleged offenses since the Prevention of Money Laundering Act (PMLA) came into force in 2002.

The total amount covered by interim orders passed by courts in such cases is around Rs 67,000 crore." 

Center told SC that proceeds of crime to the tune of Rs 98,368 crore have been identified and attached under PMLA in the last 17 years.

During this period, 4,850 cases have been taken up for investigation under the Prevention of Money Laundering Act (PMLA).

The attachment of proceeds of crime includes assets of UN-designated terrorist Hafiz Mohammad Saeed, Hizbul Mujahideen chief Syed Salahuddin and alleged drug smuggler Iqbal Mirchi.

Investigations into 57 cases of terrorism and Naxal funding have identified proceeds of crime to the tune of Rs 1,249 crore.

2,883 searches were conducted in 17 years, crime proceeds of Rs 982 crore were attached through 256 properties.

37 prosecution complaints were filed under PMLA and two terrorists were convicted.

All this is possible because of the layers of security measures provided in PMLA.

98,368 crore of proceeds of crime have been identified and attached under section 5 of the PMLA, out of which 55,

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