Special Judge (PC Act) Vishal Gogne of the Rouse Avenue Courts said that there was absolutely no justification for the ED to subject ordinary citizens (doctors) to the stringent process of Section 50 PMLA without an iota of allegation of nexus of the doctors with the allegations of money laundering against the accused.
The Court said that in a democracy like India, the citizens possess rights while the State has certain duties and this fundamental relationship cannot be inverted to invoke an authoritarian argument that the State has certain rights against the citizens who are expected to reciprocate by submission through their duties.
“Not only would the acceptance of such an argument be an inversion of the social contract on which every liberal democracy is based but also a violation of the constitutional scheme and constitutional morality. As an agency answerable to the law and the courts, the ED cannot arrogate powers unto itself. While a government agency too is expected to be a votary of civil rights, the court will certainly not remain amiss in highlighting and rejecting an entirely high handed act of the ED,” Judge Gogne said.
The judge warned that strong leaders, laws and agencies generally come back to bite the very citizens they vow to protect and that after the “masculinity of the law has been expressed against the stated targets”, these laws are “invariably alleged to have been employed against the average citizens”.
“The use of section 50 [PMLA] by the ED against the law-abiding doctors of private hospitals is a contemporary contribution to this perception. Such negation of the intended purpose of strict legislations is required to be avoided by the investigation agencies and consciously monitored by the courts.”
The rights of the citizens against being subjected to invalid processes completely trump the over reach of the law by ED, the Court said.
Source: Barandbench
