Centre may seek review of SC direction to ED to furnish grounds of arrest to accused in writing

New Delhi: Solicitor General Tushar Mehta indicated before the Delhi High Court on Monday that a review petition may be filed against a recent Supreme Court direction to the Enforcement Directorate to henceforth furnish the grounds of arrest to the accused in writing “without exception”.

The senior law officer was arguing on behalf of the Delhi Police before Justice Tushar Rao Gedela in matters pertaining to the arrest of NewsClick founder Prabir Purkayastha and human resources department head Amit Chakravarty in a case lodged under the anti-terror law, Unlawful Activities (Prevention) Act (UAPA).

Purkayastha and Chakravarty contended that their arrest and subsequent remand cannot be sustained on several legal counts, including that the grounds of arrest were not supplied to them at the time of arrest, which was in violation of the top court’s order passed on October 3 while releasing Basant Bansal and Pankaj Bansal, directors of Gurugram-based realty group M3M, in a money laundering case on the same ground.

SG Mehta said the order was of no help to the accused in the present case as it was passed in a case under the Prevention of Money Laundering Act, which was distinct from UAPA, and a constitution bench has already ruled that oral intimation of grounds of arrest was enough.

“This would be one of the grounds that we will raise in our review,” he said.

SG Mehta also said the impact of the Supreme Court’s order was prospective in nature and here the arrest was “pre-Bansal” and legal.

Senior advocate Kapil Sibal said a judgement of court is a declaration of law and will apply in all circumstances, and filing of a review petition would not change it.

“In Bansal’s case, the whole ground is that he was not provided grounds of arrest in writing and they (SC) released him.. the fact that a review is being filed doesn’t change the law,” Sibal said.

Purkayastha and Chakravarty, who were arrested by the Special Cell of the Delhi Police on October 3, had moved the high court last week challenging their arrest and subsequent 7-day police custody, and sought immediate release as an interim relief.

Justice Gedela Monday reserved the order on their pleas after hearing the rival parties.

On October 3, the Supreme Court had said the Enforcement Directorate was not expected to be “vindictive” in its conduct and must act with utmost probity and fairness, and directed the anti-money laundering agency to henceforth furnish the grounds of arrest to the accused in writing “without exception”.

In a significant verdict having far-reaching ramifications, a bench of Justices AS Bopanna and Sanjay Kumar had said being a premier investigating agency charged with the onerous responsibility of curbing the debilitating economic offence of money laundering in the country, every action of the ED in the course of such exercise is expected to be “transparent, above board and conforming to pristine standards of fair play in action”.