Top court special bench to review its '22 PMLA judgment on Oct 18

More than a year after it affirmed controversial provisions of the Prevention of Money Laundering Act (PMLA), the Supreme Court will on October 18 examine the correctness of its July 2022 judgment to reconsider if a person being arrested can be denied a copy of the Enforcement Case Information Report (ECIR), and whether the law can ascribe presumption of guilt on an accused as against the presumption of innocence.

- Utkarsh Anand and Abraham Thomas

These two issues were flagged by the court on August 25, 2022, when it had agreed to consider reviewing the previous judgment.

"On that day (October 18), we will consider whether the earlier judgment has covered the points being raised in these petitions and if it has, whether that view would need a re-look by a larger bench of five judges," a bench of justices Sanjay Kishan Kaul and Sudhanshu Dhulia said on Tuesday.

The three-judge bench to consider a review of the previous judgment has been notified and the special bench includes justices Sanjay Kishan Kaul, Sanjiv Khanna and Bela M Trivedi, justice Kaul said. Addressing the lawyers appearing in a clutch of cases relating to validity of two specific provisions of PMLA, the court said the three-judge bench will scrutinise if the July 2022 judgment had examined the validity of the law in its entirety. "In that matter, ultimately we will finalise the nitty-gritty on whether the earlier bench of three judges have covered all provisions or something has to be addressed," it added.

Justice Kaul further said that if the court on October 18 comes to a conclusion that the July 2022 verdict needs a re-look, a larger bench of five-judges will have to be constituted, since the previous judgment was also by a three-judge bench. To be sure, if the matter goes to a five-judge bench, the entire judgment and not just the two issues flagged in the first order of review can be reconsidered by the larger bench.