New SC Bench To Hear Review of ED Powers Under PMLA

New Delhi: The Supreme Court on Thursday reconstituted the Bench that will hear a batch of petitions seeking a review of its 2022 judgment upholding the Enforcement Directorate’s powers under the Prevention of Money Laundering Act (PMLA).

The new three-judge Bench will comprise Chief Justice of India Surya Kant and Justices Joymalya Bagchi and V. Mohana.

The Bench took note of senior advocate Kapil Sibal’s submission, made on behalf of Congress MP Karti Chidambaram, that notices on the review petitions had been issued in August 2022 and that the pleas should now be heard.

“The matter has been listed to record the parties’ consent on Bench allocation,” the CJI said.

He said that listing the petitions before the earlier Bench would require three existing Benches to be “broken”, as the other two judges were now sitting in different combinations.

The parties consented to the change in composition. In view of the urgency, the review petitions will be heard by the Bench comprising the CJI and Justices Bagchi and Mohana. The next hearing date will be notified later.

On July 31, 2025, the Supreme Court said it would first hear arguments on whether the review petitions were maintainable.

The July 2022 judgment in the Vijay Madanlal Choudhary case upheld key provisions of the PMLA and the ED’s powers to arrest, attach properties allegedly linked to money laundering and conduct searches and seizures.

The court had noted that the ED had proposed three preliminary questions relating primarily to the maintainability of the review petitions. The petitioners had proposed 13 questions for the court’s consideration.