Help ED in probe,SC directs TN govt
The government and the bureaucrats had moved the HC that stayed the summons issued by the ED. The probe agency has moved the top court against the HC order.
Supreme Court of India (ANI)
NEW DELHI: The state machinery should help the Enforcement Directorate in finding out if an offence has been committed as there is no harm in it, the apex court told Tamil Nadu government on Monday.
The Supreme Court had last week questioned the TN government for filing a plea in the Madras High Court against the ED for its probe in a money laundering case after the central agency summoned the district collectors of Thanjavur, Vellore, Tiruchy, Karur, and Ariyalur in connection with its probe into illegal sand mining.
The government and the bureaucrats had moved the HC that stayed the summons issued by the ED. The probe agency has moved the top court against the HC order.
The ED’s plea came up for hearing on Monday before a bench of justices Bela M Trivedi and Pankaj Mithal.
“State and its officers should help the ED in finding out if there is any offence,“ the bench observed, adding, “If the state machinery is asked to help, what is the harm caused?”
Senior advocate Kapil Sibal, appearing for Tamil Nadu, said the apex court had last time asked how the state could have filed the petition before the high court. “How the state is aggrieved if district collectors are asked something? If the district collector in individual capacity was aggrieved, he could have filed,” the bench said.
“The state has to comply with the law of parliament under Article 256 (of the Constitution). The state has to comply with PMLA,” it added.
Sibal argued that mining was not a scheduled offence under the PMLA and the state was aggrieved by the “omnibus order” of the central agency asking the district collectors to give information.