If you’ve fundamental rights, think of people’s rights too, SC tells ED

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A Bench of Justices Abhay S Oka and Ujjal Bhuyan questioned the agency on how it had filed a writ petition under Article 32 of the Constitution, which is meant for individuals.

Article 32 of Constitution guarantees citizens the “Right to Constitutional Remedies”, empowering individuals to seek redressal from the Supreme Court for violations of their fundamental rights, allowing them to directly approach the court for enforcement of these rights.

Following the Bench’s remarks, Additional Solicitor General SV Raju sought its permission to withdraw the plea and said that the ED too had fundamental rights.

“In a lighter vein, if ED has fundamental rights, it should think about fundamental rights of people too,” the Bench said. The court then allowed Raju to withdraw the plea.

The Enforcement Directorate (ED) last year claimed former IAS officer Anil Tuteja misused the anticipatory bail granted to him in the case in Chhattisgarh.

The probe agency recently made a startling claim that some constitutional functionaries of Chhattisgarh were in touch with a high court judge to ensure judicial relief to some accused in the money laundering case, stemming from the alleged multi-crore rupees NAN scam.

Aside from seeking the transfer of the PMLA case out of Chhattisgarh, the ED has also sought the cancellation of the anticipatory bail granted to some high-profile accused in the money laundering case.

In 2019, the ED lodged the complaint under the Prevention of Money Laundering Act, based on the FIR and chargesheet filed by the Chhattisgarh Police’s Economic Offences Wing and the Anti-Corruption Bureau in the civil supply scam.

The alleged scam in the public distribution system (PDS) surfaced when the state’s Anti-Corruption Bureau raided some offices of NAN, the nodal agency for ensuring effective operation of the PDS system, in February 2015 and seized unaccounted cash, totalling Rs 3.64 crore.

Many rice and salt samples collected during the raid were allegedly found to be sub-standard and unfit for human consumption, when tested. While Tuteja was the chairperson of NAN, Shukla was the managing director.