New Delhi: The Supreme Court on Wednesday (January 15) slammed the Enforcement Directorate (ED) and said that it will not tolerate legal submissions made on behalf of the Union of India which are “contrary to law.”
“We will not tolerate conduct on the part of Union of India to make submissions contrary to statute,” said a bench comprising Justices Abhay S. Oka and Ujjal Bhuyan while disapproving an argument made by the ED that Section 45 of the Prevention of Money Laundering Act will not apply to a woman, reported LiveLaw.
Solicitor General Tushar Mehta had offered an apology for an earlier submission made on behalf of the ED in which the agency had argued that the stringent bail conditions under Section 45 of the PMLA Act were applicable to a woman as well.
After the Supreme Court had pulled up the agency for the submission, Solicitor General Mehta on Wednesday said that the previous submission had happened because of “some confusion due to miscommunication.”
“No question of miscommunication. We will never appreciate such submissions by the Union of India,” said Justice Oka.
“This is a clear intention on part of Union of India that by hook or by crook bail is to be denied. Therefore, such submissions are made. If people who appear for the Union of India do not know basic provisions of law why should they appear in the matter? And to file counter at the 11th hour? This shows that this is final that a person who is arrested under PMLA has to be denied bail under any circumstance,” added Justice Oka.
The court subsequently granted bail to the accused after considering that she has been under incarceration since November 2023 and there was no likelihood of an early completion of the trial.
“If government counsels who appear before the court are to proceed on the footing that the court is not aware about basic provisions and make such admissions, what do we do? How do we conduct the proceedings? We accept that we don’t know the entire Law but sometimes we do know few provisions of law,” said the court.