In a significant development, the Supreme Court stated on Friday that its ruling obliging the Enforcement Directorate (ED) to furnish grounds of arrest to the accused at the time of arrest, specifically under money laundering charges, applies only to cases subsequent to the October 3 judgment. This announcement comes amid various petitions filed across courts, alleging unlawful arrests by the ED, citing the agency’s oral communication of arrest grounds to the accused.
The Supreme Court’s directive, articulated in the October 3 ruling, emphasized the necessity for providing a copy of the grounds of arrest to the accused at the time of arrest. The ruling explicitly mentioned its prospective application. Notably, a petition was submitted by Supertech founder Ram Kishore Arora, contending that he was not provided with a copy of the grounds of his arrest when detained in June this year.
A bench of justices Bela M Trivedi and Satish Chandra Sharma asserted, “Non-furnishing of grounds of arrest in writing till the date of pronouncement of judgment in Pankaj Bansal case could neither be held illegal nor the action of the concerned officer in not furnishing the same in writing could be faulted with.” The bench further clarified that oral communication of arrest grounds, coupled with providing a written communication within 24 hours of arrest, would be deemed sufficient compliance with both Section 19 of the Prevention of Money Laundering Act (PMLA) and Article 22(1) of the Constitution.
Section 19 of the PMLA deals with the power to arrest, while Article 22(1) states, “No person who is arrested shall be detained in custody without being informed, as soon as may be, of the grounds for such arrest.”
