Thread by @LiveLawIndia

"The sine qua non of attracting Prevention of Money Laundering Act (#PMLA) is existence of property. That is what kicks off jurisdiction of Enforcement Directorate (#ED)", Sr Adv C Aryama Sundaram says while arguing in Tamil Nadu cash-for-jobs scam case.

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Section 50 of PMLA does not support fishing-and-roving expedition. Enforcement Directorate cannot say, tell us what properties you have. They must have knowledge of existence of property and make enquiries as to how those were procured : Sundaram

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First stage & basic jurisdictional fact is existence of identified property. Without that, this act cannot be invoked. There may be a wrongdoer who is punished for a predicate offence, but this act cannot be invoked. : Sundaram

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Again, possession of proceeds of crime is sine qua non. If there is no property/person doesnt possess ill-gotten gains, no search and seizure. Mere existence of offence not jurisdictional factor for invocation of act. : Sundaram

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Prevention of Money Laundering Act cannot be invoked on basis of surmise. Section 50 proceeding cannot be turned into fishing enquiry, used to unearth existence of facts that would allow filing of ECIR. : Sundaram

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PMLA would become draconian if summons can be issued w/o registering ECIR for money laundering offence. That means you can pick up anyone & demand that they reveal details w.r.t. all properties they have, refusal amounting to perjury. : Sundaram

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Error made not only in this case, but in others...Enforcement Directorate proceeds under PMLA as though it is a fishing expedition. They register an ECIR without necessary jurisdictional fact...liable to be quashed. : Sundaram

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An FIR is filed only when an offence has been committed. There must be a dead body to start with. You can't file an FIR and then say, let's figure out if there was a crime. Same with ECIR by Enforcement Directorate. : Sundaram

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