The Supreme Court has established a new three-judge bench to hear review petitions related to its July 2022 ruling in the Vijay Madanlal Choudhary case. This earlier judgment confirmed the constitutional validity of extensive powers granted to the Enforcement Directorate (ED) under the Prevention of Money Laundering Act (PMLA).
The petitioners, led by senior advocates Sibal and Abhishek Manu Singhvi, have sought reconsideration of a wider set of issues. They have argued that the cumulative effect of these provisions undermines fundamental rights and basic requirements of fair procedure. They have placed before the court a list of 13 questions, including the retrospective application of the PMLA, the classification of ED officials as non-police personnel and the validity of provisions that enable the recording of statements before ED officers which, according to the petitioners, can have the effect of compelling self-incriminating disclosures.
“Owing to the element of urgency, let this matter be heard by a three-judge Bench of this composition, that is, CJI Surya Kant, Justice Joymalya Bagchi and Justice Mohana,” ordered the court, adding that a date for hearing would be fixed.
The bench had emphasised that review jurisdiction operates within defined parameters and that a party seeking reconsideration of a judgment must first satisfy the court that the case meets those parameters. Its reconsideration could have significant implications for several contentious aspects of money-laundering investigations, particularly arrest, disclosure of the ECIR, the evidentiary burden on accused persons and the threshold for grant of bail. The review petitions, including one filed by Congress MP Karti P Chidambaram, seek reconsideration of the Supreme Court’s 2022 verdict, which upheld the validity of key provisions of the PMLA dealing with the ED’s powers of arrest, search and seizure, the reverse burden of proof, non-supply of the Enforcement Case Information Report (ECIR) to an accused and stringent conditions for bail. The agency has also relied on the Supreme Court’s August 25, 2022 order to contend that the review was confined to two aspects of the judgment — the supply of the ECIR and the reverse burden clause relating to bail. In July 2025, the court had indicated that it would first determine whether the review petitions were maintainable before examining the substantive grounds seeking reconsideration of the Vijay Madanlal Choudhary judgment. The 2022 Vijay Madanlal Choudhary judgment has since become central to the Supreme Court’s jurisprudence on the powers of the ED under the PMLA.
