No stay on ED summons issued to Mehbooba Mufti in PMLA case

The Delhi High Court on Friday refused to stay the Enforcement Directorate [ED] summons issued to former Jammu and Kashmir chief minister Mehbooba Mufti in a money laundering case, stating that the 61-year-old Peoples Democratic Party [PDP] chief cannot be granted any relief. The ED had asked Mufti to appear before its Delhi headquarters on March 22.

The high court bench, comprising Chief Justice DN Patel and Justice Jasmeet Singh, asked the central agency to file a short note of submission along with compilation of judgements relied upon by them before April 16, and adjourned the hearings until then. It also asked Mufti’s counsel to file their short note.

The ED, which had earlier summoned Mufti for March 15, had not insisted for her personal appearance at that time. The PDP chief has now been summoned on March 22, represented through Additional Solicitor General Chetan Sharma and advocate Amit Mahajan.

Senior advocate Nitya Ramakrishnan, also representing Mufti, urged the court to ask the ED not to insist for her personal presence as was done earlier. To this, the bench said, “We are not giving any stay. We are not granting any relief.” Mufti has sought the quashing of summons issued to her by the ED in a money laundering case.

She has also sought to declare section 50 of Prevention of Money Laundering Act as void and inoperative, being unfairly discriminatory, bereft of safeguards, and violative of Article 20(3) of Constitution. Section 50 of the Act empowers the authority, that is, officers of ED, to summon any person to give evidence or produce records.

The former chief minister has also sought an interim stay on summons until the question of law in relation to constitutionality of Section 50 of the Act is decided.

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Solicitor General Tushar Mehta, representing ED, said Mufti just has to appear before the officials. During the hearing, he said there was no need to issue formal notice to them as they are already appearing before the court and said they will file a short note on the issue of question of law.

Mufti, in her petition, said she has received summons from the ED under the provisions of the PMLA, purporting to call for ‘evidence’ on pain of punishment, whereas she is, to all intents and purposes, a subject of investigation.

“She has not been informed if she is being summoned as an accused or as a witness. She has also not been informed of what she is being summoned in connection with and the scheduled offence under the PMLA which gave rise to the proceedings in respect of which impugned summons has been issued to her. The petitioner is not the subject of investigation, nor is she an accused, in any of the scheduled offences to the best of her knowledge,” the plea said.

The plea claimed that ever since Mufti was released from the preventive detention following the formal abrogation of Article 370 of the Constitution, there have been a series of hostile acts by the State, against her, acquaintances and old family friends, who have all been summoned by the ED and a roving inquiry about her personal, political and financial affairs was made, in the course of which their personal devices have been seized.

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She has also written a letter to ED pointing to the roving nature of the inquiry undertaken in the case thus far and that in the event that she is questioned, she’ll insist on legitimacy of the process, it said.

“As a responsible member of society, the petitioner is always ready and willing to aid the process of law. However, it is equally her duty to bring to the notice of this court, deviations from due process in legislative and executive acts. The petitioner apprehends that the impugned notice is a means of bringing undue pressure and harassment upon her and therefore, the petitioner wishes to assert her constitutional rights in this regard,” said the petition.

After receiving the ED summons, the PDP leader had said the Centre’s “tactics to intimidate and browbeat political opponents” won’t work. “GOI’s tactics to intimidate & browbeat political opponents to make them toe their line has become tediously predictable. They don’t want us to raise questions about its punitive actions & policies. Such short-sighted scheming won’t work,” she had tweeted, but without mentioning about the ED notice.

[With inputs from agencies]