The Punjab and Haryana High Court has observed that a stay on further investigation of a predicate offence cannot bar the Enforcement Directorate (ED) from registering an Enforcement Case Information Report (ECIR) in the matter.
The order was recently passed by the Division Bench of Justice Arun Palli and Justice Vikram Aggarwal, while refusing to quash a money laundering case related to an alleged fraud committed on the home buyers of a housing project.
The Bench noted that the stay of proceedings in the FIRs at best would mean no further investigation during operation of the interim order, however, it could not be stretched to mean that even an ECIR could not have been recorded.
The petition filed by accused Sikander Singh and others challenged the ECIR on the grounds that in a separate proceeding, the High Court had stayed the order of the Chief Judicial Magistrate (CJM) Gurugram for the registration of a First Information Report (FIRs) against them.
The petitioners argued that the ED could not have registered a money laundering case in the meanwhile in the same matter.
A single-judge bench of the High Court had later directed the CJM to pass a fresh order under Section 156 (3) (dealing with Magistrate’s power to order criminal investigation) of the Code of Criminal Procedure.
The CJM again ordered the registration of FIRs. This decision too was challenged before the High Court. On January 16, the High Court once again ordered a fresh decision by the CJM under Section 156 (3) of CrPC. At that time, the High Court also declared the earlier FIRs as null.
The petitiones in the present case contended that the ED could not have registered the ECIR in the meanwhile, while there was a stay order by the High Court. This was more so since the High Court had earlier quashed the CJM’s order for the registration of an FIR.
The Counsel for the ED argued that FIRs were not quashed and that the CJM had only been asked to pass a fresh order on the complaint under Section 156(3) of the CrPC.
After hearing both the parties, the Apex Court found that it was meritless to argue that ED could not have registered the ECIR during the operation of a stay on proceedings concerning FIRs.