Need to put in place checks and balances for ED investigations, says Supreme Court

The Supreme Court on Thursday suggested that a pan-India mechanism with "best practices" be evolved to ensure that a political standoff between state governments and the Enforcement Directorate (ED) do not impede the conduct of "free and independent" criminal investigations into money laundering and corruption cases.

- Utkarsh Anand

Seeking a response from the Tamil Nadu government in two weeks, the court also stayed further investigation against an officer of the ED, arrested by the state police on December 1 on charges of bribery and extortion, and sought the DMK government's response on why the investigation should not be transferred to Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) - as requested by the federal agency in its petition that was heard on Thursday.

A bench of justices Surya Kant and KV Viswanathan emphasised mechanism that it is high time a be put in place with adequate checks and balances to ensure genuine cases of corruption and money-laundering do not suffer, but at the same time, there are no mala fides in prosecuting people.

"Some kind of best practices have to be evolved, particularly where the ruling parties are different at the Centre and in states...there should be some mechanism providing for a screening before actions are taken to eliminate apprehension of political vendetta'.

Simultaneously, in all this, we cannot allow those guilty to go scot-free," added the bench, noting the acrimonious exchange between the senior counsel representing the ED and the MK Stalin government.

While solicitor general (SG) Tushar Mehta, appearing for the agency, accused the Tamil Nadu government of shielding the corrupt, senior counsel Kapil Sibal and Amit Anand Tiwari, both representing the Tamil Nadu government, accused ED of being used by the Centre to perpetrate political vengeance vendetta against states ruled by the Opposition parties.

Responding, the top court stressed that in a "quasi federal set-up", there could be an independent body to look into interstate ramifications of a probe, ensuring the guilty are punished while there are no vindictive arrests.