Delhi HC allows Mehbooba Mufti to withdraw plea challenging PMLA provision
New Delhi (PTI): The Delhi High Court on Wednesday permitted PDP leader Mehbooba Mufti to withdraw her petition challenging the constitutional validity of a provision of the Prevention of Money Laundering Act (PMLA).
The lawyer appearing for the former Jammu and Kashmir chief minister told a bench of Chief Justice Satish Chandra Sharma and Justice Subramonium Prasad about her decision to withdraw the petition which was filed in March 2021.
The petition also challenged the summons issued to her by the Enforcement Directorate in a money laundering case and sought a stay which the court had earlier declined.
The court was informed the issues raised by the petitioner have already been addressed by the Supreme Court in a decision.
Mufti had in her plea sought declaring section 50 of the Prevention of Money Laundering Act void and inoperative, being unfairly discriminatory, bereft of safeguards, and violative of Article 20(3) of the Constitution.
Section 50 of the Act empowers the ED authority to summon any person to give evidence or produce records. All summoned are bound to answer the questions put to them and to produce documents as required by the ED officers, failing which they can be penalised.
Initially, the ED had summoned Mufti for March 15, 2021 but it did not insist on her personal appearance at that time. Thereafter, she was summoned for March 22, 2021.
Mufti, in her petition, said she has received summons from the ED under the provisions of the PMLA, purporting to call for 'evidence' on pain of punishment, whereas she is, to all intents and purposes, a subject of investigation.
The plea claimed ever since Mufti was released from preventive detention following abrogation of Article 370 of the Constitution, there has been a series of hostile acts by the State, against her, her acquaintances and old family friends who have all been summoned by the ED and a roving inquiry about her personal, political and financial affairs was made.
The ED, it alleged, seized their personal electronic devices in the course of inquiry.
The Centre had told the high court last year it has filed a plea before the Supreme Court seeking transfer of Mufti's petition to the top court as several pleas concerning various provisions and scheme of PMLA were pending there.
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Whoever wins heart of Gandhi family in Congress will become CM: Basavaraj Bommai
Gadag: In Congress, whoever wins the hearts of Sonia Gandhi, Rahul Gandhi, and Priyanka Gandhi will become the Chief Minister. This is a shame for the democratic system, said former Chief Minister and MP Basavaraj Bommai.
Speaking to the media in Gadag, he said there is a clash among leaders due to excessive desire for power. Cabinet ministers are trying to retain their positions. Some leaders are demanding ministerial posts saying they have won elections multiple times, while newcomers are also seeking ministerial positions. He added that the Chief Minister is trying to retain his position.
Bommai said Mallikarjun Kharge is a senior leader and feels he should have been given the Chief Minister post fairly.
He further said that Siddaramaiah and DK Shivakumar function as the high command, referring to Rahul Gandhi and Sonia Gandhi, and added that Congress is a family-based party. He reiterated that whoever wins the support of Rahul Gandhi, Sonia Gandhi, and Priyanka Gandhi becomes the Chief Minister, calling it a shame for the democratic system and alleging that the party has weakened internal democracy.
Responding to a question about allegations that officials in the government are not working, he said, “The people who made them are angry. The Congress has cheated the people who elected them. The government is completely at a standstill. No work has been done. About Rs 14,000 crores provided in Siddaramaiah's last budget have not been used. About Rs 10,000 crores were not used in the year before that either. How will the officials work if there is political conflict? If the CM says one thing and the DCM says another, this government has completely come to a standstill in the eyes of the people.”
