SC reconstitutes three-judge bench to hear pleas against 2022 verdict upholding ED powers
New Delhi, May 4 (PTI): The Supreme Court has reconstituted a three-judge bench to decide if its 2022 verdict upholding the Enforcement Directorate's powers to arrest and attach property under the Prevention of Money Laundering Act needs reconsideration.
The reconstituted bench of Justice Surya Kant, Justice Ujjal Bhuyan and Justice N Kotiswar Singh will take up a batch of petitions seeking a review of the 2022 verdict.
The matter is listed for hearing on May 7.
Earlier, a bench of Justice Kant, Justice Bhuyan and Justice CT Ravikumar was hearing the matter.
Justice Ravikumar superannuated on January 5.
On March 6, after the pleas were listed before a two-judge bench, Justice Kant told the lawyers appearing in the matter that it was wrongly listed and assured them that a new three-judge bench would shortly take up the issue.
The top court in July 2022 upheld the Enforcement Directorate's (ED) powers of arrest and attachment of property involved in money laundering, search and seizure under the Prevention of Money Laundering Act (PMLA).
In August that year, the top court agreed to hear pleas seeking review of its verdict and observed that two aspects -- not providing an Enforcement Case Information Report (ECIR) and reversal of the presumption of innocence -- "prima facie" required reconsideration.
Observing it was common the world over that money laundering was a "threat" to the good functioning of a financial system, the apex court upheld the validity of certain provisions of the PMLA, underlining it was not an "ordinary offence".
The top court had said authorities under the 2002 law were "not police officers as such" and the ECIR could not be equated with an FIR under the Code of Criminal Procedure (CrPC).
It had said supply of an ECIR copy in every case to the person concerned was not mandatory and it was enough if the ED, at the time of arrest, disclosed the grounds for it.
The verdict came on a batch of more than 200 petitions filed by individuals and other entities questioning various provisions of the PMLA, a law the opposition often claims is weaponised by the government to harass its political adversaries.
Section 45 of the PMLA, which deals with offences to be cognisable and non-bailable and have twin conditions for bail, is reasonable and does not suffer from the vice of arbitrariness or unreasonableness, the top court had said.
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FIDE Women's World Cup final: Humpy draws with Divya in first game
Batumi (Georgia), Jul 26 (PTI): Young Indian International Master Divya Deshmukh held her nerves to hold stalwart Koneru Humpy to a draw in game 1 of the FIDE Women's World Cup final, with both players having their share of opportunities to take the lead here on Saturday.
The draw with black means Humpy, the two-time World Rapid champion, holds a slight edge going in the second and final game under the classical chess rules in the two-game mini-match, and should the deadlock continue, games of shorter duration will be played to determine the winner.
Humpy employed the Queen's gambit accepted as black and it turned out to be a pretty fascinating game right out of the opening as Divya, 19, came up with a piece sacrifice early to deny the black king the right to castle.
Humpy was the first to err and, according to computers, Divya had things under control on the 14th move. However in her bid to recover the extra material, the Nagpur girl, who has secured a place in the Candidates tournament with her sterling performance here, missed a promising continuation.
What followed the exchange of all minor pieces and the ensuing queen and rook endgame gave enough counter play to both players. The game was eventually drawn after Humpy sacrificed her rook to force perpetual checks.
"The game saw an extremely sharp battle with the game ending in a draw in 41 moves. On move 7, Divya made her aggressive intentions clear by offering another pawn,
which looked like home preparation. Humpy made a practical decision of refraining from taking the pawn and a balanced position was reached by move 10 by white," said Grandmaster Pravin Thipsay, an Arjuna awardee and the first Indian to get a chess Grandmaster norm.
"However, instead of developing the undeveloped Knight, Humpy retreated the centralised Knight on move 10, giving huge positional advantage to Divya. Divya could have gained huge positional advantage on the 12th move by moving a rook. However, she chose to play for King side attack by sacrificing a piece instead.
"Humpy, too, erred at this stage and instead of moving the King to Queen side, moved it to the King side. Divya, on move 14, could have obtained a crushing attack by threatening a mate by developing her Queen. Instead she chose to exchange a pair of Bishops first, which enabled Humpy to defend her King by returning the piece," said Thipsay.
"Players thus reached a balanced Queen and two Rooks ending. Divya continued to play ambitiously and tried to attack Humpy’s King but the latter defended accurately and the game was drawn in 41 moves by perpetual check," he added.
In the play-off for the third place, Chinese players Zhongyi Tan, the former women's world champion and top seed Lei Tingjie also decided to split points out of a Queen’s gambit declined game.
The opening raised visions of a close contest between the two but having been knocked out of title race in the previous round, none of them wanted to take any huge risk. It was still a middle game when the players shook hands.
With the top two positions sealed for the Indians, the berth to the next Candidates is also assigned, while the player finishing third will also get an entry to the premier event scheduled for 2026.
Results: Divya Deshmukh (Ind) drew with Koneru Humpy (Ind); Zhongyi Tan (Chn) drew with Tingjie Lei (Chn).
