Supreme Court ruling mandated sanction in money laundering cases

It all started on November 20 when Arvind Kejriwal approached the Delhi High Court seeking to quash a local court’s July 9 order taking cognisance of the ED’s chargesheet. He challenged the trial court’s order on the grounds of lack of sanction to prosecute him and sought a pause on the court proceedings in the money laundering case.

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Kejriwal’s petition came in the wake of November 6 Supreme Court’s ruling that the requirement for prior government sanction to prosecute public servants, as mandated under the Code of Criminal Procedure (CrPC), also applies to complaints involving money laundering cases.

The SC order came on the ED’s petition challenging the HC decision quashing an order of the trial court that had taken cognisance of the ED’s prosecution complaint on money laundering charges against the two senior bureaucrats of Andhra Pradesh.

The ED had contended that the requirement of obtaining a sanction under Section 197(1) of CrPC will be inconsistent with the Section 71 of the PMLA. The Section 197 (1) protect public servants from prosecution for anything they did in the discharge of their duties. ED sources said before the SC’s ruling, it was not mandatory for them to take sanction for prosecution.