The Supreme Court on Wednesday questioned the working style of the Enforcement Directorate and expressed concern whether not providing crucial documents to the accused at the stage of bail violates their fundamental liberty under Article 21 of the Constitution? With this remark, the court reserved its order on an appeal related to the provision of vague or incomplete documents in a money laundering case.
The bench of Justices Abhay S Oka, Ehsanuddin Amanullah, and Agustin George Masih heard the case and will give its verdict in the coming days. Questioning the attitude of the ED, the bench said, “Many times there may be documents which are with the ED, but after filing the chargesheet, those documents are not given to the accused. Doesn’t this violate their Article 21 rights?”
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ED’s argument in the Supreme Court
During the hearing, Additional Solicitor General (ASG) SV Raju, representing the ED, argued that there is no objection to the provision of documents, but the accused should not have the right to demand all the documents without proper reason. He said that the accused can ask for only the necessary documents.
However, the bench objected to this view. Justice Oka said, “Times have changed. To what extent can we say that documents should be preserved? Will we be so strict that the accused will not get access to documents? Is this justice?”
Court has right to cancel proceedings!
The bench said that if an accused seeks documents not included in the chargesheet and approaches the high court, the court has the power to quash the proceedings. The bench also said that there is no bar to examining any possible defence during bail proceedings, which is based on documents in the possession of the accused.
The Supreme Court challenged the ED’s attitude of not giving documents and said, “You seize thousands of documents and rely on 50. The accused cannot remember every document. You may have a decisive document, but you will not give it on the basis of PMLA technicality. Is this right? Why can’t everything be transparent?”
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There can be no excuse for delay in the trial!
ASG Raju, appearing for the ED, replied that the accused already have a list of the required documents. However, Justice Oka pointed to the convenience of modern document management and said that even large volumes of documents can be scanned quickly, and there can be no excuse for delaying the trial.
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