The Delhi High Court has deferred hearing on the plea filed by Mehbooba Mufti, the former Chief Minister of Jammu and Kashmir, challenging the constitutional validity of the Prevention of Money Laundering Act, 2002.
Upon the request made by Solicitor General Tushar Mehta, the Division Bench comprising Chief Justice D.N. Patel and Justice Jyoti Singh adjourned the matter for August 13.
The Bench queried if Mufti had appeared before the Enforcement Directorate in compliance with the summons issued by the agency, to which Nitya Ramakrishnan, Mufti’s senior counsel, responded in the affirmative.
She urged the Bench to direct the agency to file a summary of the case against the leader in pursuance of the earlier order of the court. The Bench thereto stated that the Solicitor General is present in the hearing and will do the needful.
Earlier, the bench of Chief Justice D.N. Patel and Justice Jasmeet Singh refused to stay the ED summons to Mufti on a money laundering case against her. In addition to seeking a stay on the summons, the plea challenged Section 50 of the PMLA Act, which gives powers to authorities regarding summons, production of documents and to give evidence.
After receiving the notice of summon, Mufti had, on March 5, tweeted: “GOIs 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.”
The plea stated that 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 offense under the PMLA which gave rise to the proceedings in respect of which summons have been issued to her.
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The plea further stated that Mufti is not the subject of investigation, nor is she an accused, in any of the scheduled offenses under the PMLA, to the best of her knowledge.
The plea averred 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.