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Abhishek Banerjee & Anr. vs Directorate of Enforcement

Not available · 2024 INSC 668Decided 9 Sept 2024
Not available
Justice Bela M. Trivedi · Justice Satish Chandra Sharma

Background

In a probe into an alleged illegal coal-mining and money-laundering racket worth over Rs. 1,300 crores in West Bengal, the Enforcement Directorate (ED) issued repeated summons under Section 50 of the PMLA to Member of Parliament Abhishek Banerjee and his wife Rujira Banerjee, requiring them to appear in New Delhi rather than Kolkata. When they resisted (Banerjee's wife especially, citing her role as homemaker/mother and the ED's own Kolkata office) the ED filed a complaint against her for non-compliance under Section 174 IPC, and a magistrate took cognizance and summoned her. Both moved the Delhi High Court challenging the summons and the complaint, but the High Court dismissed their petitions, leading to this appeal.

Decision Breakdown

The Supreme Court held that the PMLA is a self-contained special code that overrides the CrPC wherever inconsistent (under Section 71 read with Section 65 PMLA), so protections under CrPC provisions like Section 160 (which restricts summoning women/minors to their place of residence) do not automatically extend to ED summons issued under Section 50 PMLA, since Section 50 is gender-neutral and follows its own statutory procedure (Rule 11 of the 2005 PMLA Rules). Relying on the earlier three-judge bench ruling in Vijay Madanlal Choudhary, the Court reaffirmed that a Section 50 summons is not "testimonial compulsion" attracting Article 20(3) protection at the pre-arrest inquiry stage, and found there was an adequate territorial nexus with Delhi since a large sum of the alleged proceeds of crime had been routed there. The Court also found no illegality in the magistrate's proceedings against Rujira Banerjee for non-appearance, noting she had not even placed the relevant orders before the Court. Both appeals were dismissed as devoid of merit.

Lesson Learnt

The special procedural framework of the PMLA prevails over the general safeguards in the CrPC, including protections normally available to women witnesses: persons summoned by the Enforcement Directorate under Section 50 must comply according to the PMLA's own rules, and cannot resist merely by invoking CrPC provisions the PMLA does not itself carry over.

Official source (sci.gov.in)View Judgment (PDF)

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