PMLA case: Supreme Court junks Rana Ayyub's plea challenging summons
New Delhi, February 7
The Supreme Court on Tuesday dismissed journalist Rana Ayyub’s petition challenging summons issued by a Ghaziabad Special Court in a money laundering case lodged by the ED, saying the issue should be raised before the trial court.
“We are of the view that the issue of territorial jurisdiction cannot be decided in a writ petition, especially when there is a serious factual dispute about the place/places of commission of the offence. Hence, this question should be raised by the petitioner before the special court (Ghaziabad), since an answer to the same would depend upon evidence as to the places where any one or more of the processes or activities mentioned in Section 3 (of the Prevention of Money Laundering Act) were carried out,” a Bench led by Justice V Ramasubramanian said.
Ayyub had challenged the summoning order on the ground that the Ghaziabad court did not have territorial jurisdiction and that the special court in Maharashtra alone could have taken cognisance of the ED complaint as the alleged offence took place in that state.
