VIJAY MADANLAL CHOUDHARY & Ors. v. UNION OF INDIA & Ors.

From the Judgment and Order dated 30.04.2014 of the High Court of Judicature at Bombay in Criminal Application No. 1132 of 2012. With SLP(C) NOS. 28394, 28922, 29273 OF 2011, SLP(CRL.) DIARY NO. 41063 OF 2015, SLP(CRL.) NOS. 9987, 10018, 10019 OF 2015, SLP(CRL.) NO. 993 OF 2016, T.P. (CRL.) NOS. 150, 151-157 OF 2016, WP(CRL.) NO. 152 OF 2016, SLP(CRL.) NO. 11839 OF 2019, SLP(CRL.) NOS. 2890, 5487 OF 2017, CRL. APPEAL NOS. 1269, 1270 OF 2017, 1271-1272 OF 2017, WP(CRL.) NO. 202 OF 2017, SLP(CRL.) DIARY NOS. 9360, 9365, 17000, 17462, 20250, 22529 OF 2018, SLP(CRL.) NOS. 1534, 1701-1703, 1705, 2971, 4078, 5444, 6922, 7408, 8156, 11049 OF 2018, CRL. APPEAL NOS. 223, 391-392, 793- 794, 1114, 1115, 1210 OF 2018, WP (CRL.) NOS. 26, 33, 75, 117, 173, 175, 184, 226, 251, 309, 333, 336 OF 2018, TRANSFERRED CASE (CRIMINAL) NOS. 3, 4, 5 OF 2018, TRANSFER PETITION (CIVIL) NO. 1583 OF 2018, SLP(CRL.) NOS. 244, 3647, 4322-4324, 4546, 5153, 5350, 6834, 8111, 8174, 9541, 9652, 10627 OF 2019, W.P. (CRL.) NOS. 9 , 16, 49, 118, 119, 122, 127, 139, 147, 173, 205, 212, 217, 239, 244, 253, 261, 263, 266, 267, 272, 273, 283, 285, 286, 287, 288, 289, 298, 299, 300, 303, 305, 306, 308, 309, 313, 326, 346, 365, 367 OF 2019, SLP(CRL.) NOS. 647, 260, 618, 1732, 2023, 2814, 3366, 3474, 5536, 6128, 6172, 6303, 6456, 6660 OF 2020, W.P. (CRL.) NOS. 5, 9, 28, 35, 36, 39, 49, 52, 60, 61, 89, 90, 91, 93, 124, 137, 140, 142, 145, 169, 184, 221, 223, 228, 239, 240, 259, 267, 285, 286, 311, 329, 366, 380, 385, 387, 404, 410, 411, 429 OF 2020, W.P. (C) NO. 1401 OF 2020, SLP(CRL.) DIARY NOS. 8626, 31616, 11605 OF 2021, SLP(CRL.) NOS. 609, 734, 1031, 1072, 1073, 1107, 1355, 1440, 1403, 1586, 1855, 1920, 2050-2054, 2237, 2250, 2435, 2818, 3228, 3274, 3439, 3514, 3629, 3769, 3813, 3921, 4024, 4834, 5156, 5174, 5252, 5457, 5652, 5696-5697, 6189, 6338, 6847, 7021-7023, 8429 OF 2021, SLP(C) NOS. 8764-8767, 20310 OF 2021, TRANSFER PETITION (CRIMINAL) No.

435 OF 2021, WP (C) No. 56 OF 2021, WP (CRIMINAL) NOS. 4, 6, 11, 18, 19, 21, 27, 33, 40, 47, 66, 69, 144, 179, 199, 207, 239, 263, 268, 282, 301, 323, 359, 370, 303, 305, 453, 454, 475, 520, 532 OF OF 2021. B C D E F G H VIJAY MADANLAL CHOUDHARY & ORS. v. UNION OF INDIA & ORS. 417 Tushar Mehta, SG, Suryaprakash V. Raju, Aman Lekhi, K M Nataraj, S.V. Raju, Ms.Aishwarya Bhati, Jayant Kr. Sud, Vikramjit Banerjee, S. V. Raju, Sanjay Jain, ASGs, B.K. Satija, Samar Vijay Singh, Ms.Ruchi Kohli, Vishal Mahajan, AAGs, Kapil Sibal, Dr. Abhishek Manu Singhvi, Sidharth Luthra, Mukul Rohatgi, Vivek Reddy, Vikram Chaudhari, Suryanarayana Singh, A. Mariarputham, Maninder Singh, S.B. Upadhyay, S. Niranjan Reddy, Siddharth Aggarwal, Pramod K. Dubey, Jagmohan Bansal, Amit K Desai, Dr.Menaka Guruswamy, Aabad Ponda, Mahesh Jethmalani, Vikas Singh, N. Hariharan, Sr. Advs., Mahesh Agarwal, Anshuman Srivastava, Prasouk Jawin, Ms.Rabiya Thakur, Nishant Rao, E.C. Agrawala, Arshdeep Singh Khurana, Prateek Chadha, Adit S. Pujari, Amit Bhandari, Akshat Gupta, Ms.Madhavi Agrawal, Ms.Ambika Mathur, Shreedhar Kale, Raghav Tankha, Harsh Mittal, Mrs.

Shally Bhasin, Balaji Subramanian, Ms.Ishani Banerjee, SCV Vimal Pani, Ms.L Maheswari, A. Lakshminarayanan, Tarun Dua, Anant Garg, Asif Ahmad, Adityaa Raju, Suhaan Mukerji, Shri Singh, Aditya Dewan, Vishal Prasad, Ms.Chitralekha Das, Nikhil Parikshith, Dewang Singh Chauhan, Abhishek Manchanda, Chirag Madan, Ms.Shubhangini Jain, Sayandeep Pahari, Ms.Padma Venkataraman, M/S. Plr Chambers And Co., Pratik Reddy, Victor Das, Ms.Anwesha Padhi, Mohit Rai, Atul Agarwal, Sourabh Kumar Mishra, Kumar Dushyant Singh, Keshavam Chaudhari, Amit K. Nain, Harshit Sethi, Rishi Sehgal, Ms.Ria Khanna, Devanshu Yadav, Kapil Dahiya, Raktim Gogoi, Varun Shekhar, Kartikeya Singh, Samarth Shandilya, Gautam Awasthi, Ms.Anzu K. Varkey, Nikhil Jain, Hemant Shah, Sangram S. Saron, Vinod Kumar Jain, Satya Prakash, Ms. Pragati Neekhra, Avadh Bihari Kaushik, Anand Dilip Dagga, Rajat Nair, Sairica Raju, Ms.Sharadha Deshmukh, Neela Kedar Gokhale, Ritwiz Rishabh, Sharath Nambiyar, A k Sharma, Ms.Nisha Bagchi, Binu Tamta, Arvind Kumar Sharma, K.M. Nataraj, Ms.Zoheb Hussain, Ms.Sairica Raju, Ms.Shradha Deshmukh, Ms.Neela Kedar Gokhale, Sharath Nambiar, Mukesh Kumar Maroria, Raj Bahadur Yadav, Anshuman Singh, Ankit Bhatia, Arpit Goel, Om Prakash Shukla, Sanjay Kumar Tyagi, Kanu Agarwal, Zoheb Hossain, Ms.

Aastha Mehta, Ms.Deepanwita Priyanka, Ms.Archana Pathak Dave, Sughosh Subramanium, Ms.Swarupama Chaturvedi, B. V. Balaram Das, G.S Makker, Avneesh Arputham, M/S. Arputham Aruna And Co, Syed Abdul Haseeb, Adit Khorana, Mayank Pandey, Deepbali Datta, Rajan Kr. Chourasia, Ms.Deepabali A B C D E F G H 418 SUPREME COURT REPORTS [2022] 6 S.C.R. A B C D E F G H Duttai, M.K. Maroria, B. Vinodh Kanna, Vansaja Shukla, Gurmeet Singh Makker, Ms.Monika Gusain, Varun Shankar, Lakshman RS, Atharva Koppal, Divyanshu Jain, Arnav Narain, Pawan R. Upadhyay, Mrs. Sharmila Upadhyay, Ms.Anisha Upadhyay, Sarvjit Pratap Singh, Gaurav Prakash Pathak, Nishant Kumar, Raghenth Basant, Yogesh Raavi, Anirudh Reddy, Ms. Liz Mathew, Shishir Mathur, Shohit Chaudhry, Mukul Singh, D.L. Chidnanad, Amit Sharma, Ms.Rukhimini Bobde, A.K. Sharma, Vivek Jain, Ms.Suchitra Kumbhat, Prithveesh MK, Gurpreet S. Parwanda, Nishanth Patil, Ms.Malvika Kala, Adarsh Aggarwal, Ajay Aggarwal, Aman Garg, Mohinder Singh, Suresh Jhunthra, Rajan Narain, Ms.Deepabali Datta, S. Hari Haran, Ms.Sairica S Raju, Naveen Malhotra, S. Mahesh Sahasranaman, Gopalkrishna Shenoy, Ms.Prapti Allagh, Prateek K Chadha, Ms.Ayushi Rajput, Ms.Radhika Dhanotia, Yash S. Vijay, Shaffi Mather, Parmatma Singh, Mayank Jain, Madhur Jain, Ms.

Neha Sharma, Ms.Binu Tamta, Dr. (Mrs.) Vipin Gupta, Neeraj Kumar Sharma, Subhash Jadhav, Chandan Singh Shekhawat, Pranav Sarthi, Ms.Natabrata Bhattacharya, Ms. Awantika Manohar, Ms.Natasha Vinayak, Ms. Jaikriti S. Jadeja, Rajiv Shankar Dvivedi, Rishabh Jain, Sushant Kr. Sarkar, Ms.Arti Dvivedi, Saurabh Mishra, Sunil Fernandes, Swaroop Anand, Ms.Nupur Kumar, Prastut Dalvi, Nagendra R. Naik, Pai Amit, Ms.Pankhuri Bhardwaj, Ms.Bhavana Duhoon, Ms. Christi Jain, Hitesh Jain, Ms.Gunjan Mangla, Chadan Singh Shekhawat, Nikhil Ahuja, Tawanji Shukla, Ms. Malvika Kapila, Ms. Anjali Jha, Ms.Anjali Jha Manish, Priyadarshi Manish, Ms.Divyanshee Singh, Shivam Sharma, Raj Kishor Choudhary, Varun Raghavan, Shakeel Ahmed, Ms.Malvika Raghavan, Satish Pandey, Salim Ansari, Rajesh Pandey, Akbar Ali, Vikas Gupta, S. K. Verma, Narender Hooda, Dr. Surender Singh Hooda, Ms. Preeti Singh, Mrs. Malbika Sarkar, Devanshu Yadav, Dr.

G.K. Sarkar, Prashant Srivatav, Ayush Choudhary, Sameer Pandey, Omar Ahmed, Malak Manish Bhatt, Ms. Neeha Nagpal, Aditya Gupta, Jaspal Singh, Vijay Aggarwal, Mudit Jain, Yugant Sharma, Ms. Astha Sharma, Ms. Mantika Haryani, Ajit Sharma, Prithvees MK, Nishanth Patil, Ms. Shubhika Saluja, Vivek Jain, Zulfiquar Memom, Mrinal Bharti, Parvez Memom, Chirag Naik, Ms.Vaijayanti Sharma, Nirvikar Singh, Manish Shekhari, Palash Bhatkoti, Nitin Sharma, Karan Bharihoke, Kunal Verma, E. M. S. Anam, Vishnu Shanker, Ms. Ranjana Roy Gawai, Ms. Vasudha Sen, Ujjawal Jain, Ms. Divya Roy, Sunil Kumar Jain, Fuzail Ahmad Ayyubi, VIJAY MADANLAL CHOUDHARY & ORS. v. UNION OF INDIA & ORS. 419 Irshad Ahmad, Shailesh Madiyal, Sudhanshu Prakash, Vaibhav Sabhrawal, Ms.Rakhi M., Ms.Neha Jain, Sruthi Iyer, Neha Jain, Ms.Kanishka Prasad, Abbula kalam, Ibad Mushtaq, Ms.Akanksha Rai, Pawan Upadhyay, S. S. Sastry, Rajender Vats, Vipul Srivastav, M/S. Unuc Legal Llp, M/S. Ap & J Chambers, Bharadwaj S., Ranjit Kumar Sharma, Mrs.

Priya Puri, Arshdeep, Sharad Puri, Ranjay Dubey, Yati Sharma, G.Sivabalamurugan, Aljo K. Joseph, Ranjan Kumar, Mrs. Shelna K., Nikilesh Ramachandran, Manish Pratap Singh, Ms. Mahima Bhardwaj, Vivek Narayan Sharma, Tushar Kumar, Rajeev Kumar Jha, Pranshu Kaushal, Shubham Awasthi, Ajay Singh, Braj K. Mishara, Vijay Kumar, Arun Raghavender, Ms.Bharti Tyagi, Shantanu M. Adkar, R. Lakshmishankar, S. Udaya Kumar Sagar, Ms.Bina Madhavan, Sanjay Indukuri, R. Narayan Kumar, Ms.Akansha Mehra, M/S. Lawyer’s S Knit & Co., Akshay Nagarajan, Rishi Malhotra, Ms.Sonia Dube, Shatadru Chakraborty, Ms.Kanchan Yadav, Surbhi Anand, M/S. Legal Options, Tanveer Ahmed Mir, Arjun Singh Bhati, Dhruv Gupta, Vaibhav Suri, Prabhav Ralli, Ms.Urja Pandey, Amit Gupta, Akhilesh Dubey, Dharmesh Joshi, Uttam Dubey, Hari Sankar Mahaptra, Bhavini Sribastava, M/S. Mitter & Mitter Co., Gursharan S. Virk, Nakul Mohta, Ms. Misha Rohatgi, Devansh Shrivastava, Johnson Subba, Deepak Prakash, Abhishek A. Rastogi, Pratushpava Saha, Mahir Chablani, Rohit Ghosh, Ms.Kanika Sharma, M/S. Khaitan & Co., M. T. George, Ms.Susy, Johns George, Ms.

Rashi Bansal, Shekhar G Devasa, Manish Tiwari, Shashi Bhushan Nagar, Ramesh Jadhav, M/S. Devasa & Co., Namit Saxena, Awnish Maithani, Ms.Arushi Dhawan, M.K. Subramanian, Vinodh Kanna B., Ritesh Patil, Shamik Shirishbhai Sanjanwala, Ms.Diksha Rai, Ankit Agarwal, Prateek Bhardwaj, Mahfooz Ahsan Nazki, Polanki Gowtham, Shaik Mohamad Haneef, T. Vijaya Bhaskar Reddy, K.V. Girish Chowdary, Ms. Rajeswari Mukherjee, Devendra Kumar Singh, Karunakar Mahalik, Mrs. Anil Katiyar, Syed Ahmed Saud, Daanish Ahmad Syed, Mohd. Parvez Dabas, Uzmi Jameel Husain, Aqib Baig, Mohd. Shahib, Sunil Sarogi, M/S. Shakil Ahmad Syed, Dr.Sujay Kantawala, Azmat Hayat Amanullah, Nishant Awana, Sagar Chauhan, Ms.Nitya Sharma, Devansh Malhotra, Sujit Sahoo, Aditya Talpade, Divyesh Pratap Singh, Ms.Srishti Singh, Gautam Talukdar, A.P. Singh, Shreyansh Rathi, M/S. M. V. Kini & Associates, Sarvesh Singh Baghel, Mukhtar Alam, Ms.Natasha, B. Krishna Prasad, Balaji Srinivasan, M B A B C D E F G H 420 SUPREME COURT REPORTS [2022] 6 S.C.R. A B C D E F G H R S Raju, Mrs.

Lakshmi Rao, Prateek Yadav, Mohammad Shahrukh, Ms.Pallavi Sengupta, Ms.Garima Jain, Ms.Aakriti Priya, Suhail Ahmed, V. Shyamohan, Ms.Jaspreet Gogia, Ms.Mandakini Singh, Karanvir Gogia, Ms.Shivangi Singhal, Ms.Ashima Mandla, O. P. Gaggar, Ashoka Kumar Thakur, Imran Khan, Anil K. Chopra, Shreeyash U. Lalit, Mahesh Kumar, Vishal Sharma, Ms.Devika Khanna, Mrs. V. D. Khanna, Aniruddha P. Mayee, Chirag M. Shroff, Amandeep Mehta, Gaurav Malhotra, Samir Ali Khan, Rahul Chitnis, Sachin Patil, Aaditya A. Pande, Geo Joseph, Ms.Shwetal Shepal, V. N. Raghupathy, Nishe Rajen Shonker, Ms.Anu K. Joy, Alim Anvar, Akash Kakade, Somanatha Padhan, Swetab Kumar, Sukhada Kakade, Dr.Monika Gusain, Dinesh Kumar Sabharwal, Sameer Bhatnagar, Syed Mehdi Imam, V. Vasudevan, Aswathi M.K., Birj Kant Mishra, Hitesh Kumar Sharma, S.K. Rajora, Akhileshwar Jha, Ms.Maneesha Kongovi, R. Sudhinder, Ms.Prerana Amitabh, Shivabhushan Hatti, Shashank Dixit, R Gopalakrishan, V. Vasudev, Awasthi M.K., Gautam Khazanchi, Anshuman Sinha, Vijay Pande, Ms.Jaikriti S Jadeja, Ms.Pragya Sharma, Vinay Prakash, Amit, Maneesh Saxena, Vipin Kumar Saxena, Ms.Kajal Rani, Ms.

Natasha Dalmia, Anand Varma, Mayank Jain, Madhur Jain, A. Selvin Raja, Dhruv Gupta, Prabhav Ralli, Ms.Kartika Sharma, Shreyansh Agrawal, Ms.Rooh-e- Hina Dua, Rajive Bhalla, Rajiv Malhotra, Yajur Bhalla, Deepak Samota, Sumeir Ahuja, Shubham Bhalla, V. Purushothaman Reddy, Ms.Misha Rohatgi Mohta, Johnson Subba, Somanath Padhan, Swetab Kumar, Rishabh Jain, Jyoti Kumar Singh, Saurabh Mishra, Sachin Jolly, Akshay Anand, Ms.Maneesha Kongovi, R Sudhinder, Ms.Prerana Amitabh, Shivabhushan Hatti, R Gopalakrishnan, Vishal Gosain, Nagarkatti Kartik Uday, Ms.Deepika Kalia, Ms.Adya Rajkotia Luthra, Sandeep Sharma, Sunny Choudhary, E. C. Agrawala, Raj Kamal, Abhimanyu Bhandari, Ms.Kartika Sharma, Arav Pandit, Shreyansh Agrawal, Ms.Roohe Hina Dua, Wills Mathews, Mathen Joseph, Devendra Kumar Tiwari, Paul John Edison, Rakesh Garg, Ashish Gopal Garg, Ms.Shweta Garg, Navanjay Mahapatra, S.A. Haseeb, Adit Khorana, Ankur Chawla, V.K.Biju, Ms.Ria Sachthey, Chetanya Singh, Amlendu Kumar Akhilesh Kumar Jha, Abhay Pratap Singh, Shaji George, Ms.Vijay Laxmi, T. G. Narayanan Nair, Ms.

Shweta Garg, G. Prakash, D.Kumanan, Narender Kumar Verma, Pranav Sachdeva, K. Paari Vendhan, Ms. Uma Devi. M, Advs. for the appearing parties. VIJAY MADANLAL CHOUDHARY & ORS. v. UNION OF INDIA & ORS. 421 The Judgment of the Court was delivered by A. M. KHANWILKAR, J. Table of Contents A B C D E F G H 422 SUPREME COURT REPORTS [2022] 6 S.C.R. A PREFACE

In the present batch of petition(s)/appeal(s)/case(s), we are called upon to deal with the pleas concerning validity and interpretation of certain provisions of the Prevention of Money-Laundering Act, 20021 and the procedure followed by the Enforcement Directorate2 while inquiring into/investigating offences under the PMLA, being violative of the constitutional mandate. (a) It is relevant to mention at the outset that after the decision of this Court in Nikesh Tarachand Shah vs. Union of India & Anr.3, the Parliament amended Section 45 of the 2002 Act vide Act 13 of 2018, so as to remove the defect noted in the said decision and to revive the effect of twin conditions specified in Section 45 to offences under the 2002 Act. This amendment came to be challenged before different High Courts including this Court by way of writ petitions. In some cases where relief of bail was prayed, the efficacy of amended Section 45 of the 2002 Act was put in issue and answered by the concerned High Court.

Mr. Kapil Sibal, learned senior counsel appearing for the private parties/petitioners in the concerned matter(s) submitted that the procedure followed by the ED in registering the Enforcement Case Information Report10 is opaque, arbitrary and violative of the constitutional rights of an accused. It was submitted that the procedure being followed under the PMLA is draconian as it violates the basic tenets of the criminal justice system and the rights enshrined in Part III of the Constitution of India, in particular Articles 14, 20 and 21 thereof. (i) A question was raised as to whether there can be a procedure in law, where penal proceedings can be started against an individual, without informing him of the charges? It was contended that as per present situation, the ED can arrest an individual on the basis of an ECIR without informing him of its contents, which is per se arbitrary and violative of the constitutional rights of an accused.

1. These transfer petitions are disposed of with liberty to the private parties to pursue the proceedings pending before the High Court. The contentions, other than dealt with in this judgment, are kept open, to be decided in those proceedings on its own merits. It would be open to the parties to pursue all (other) contentions in those proceedings, except the question of validity and interpretation of the concerned provision(s) already dealt with in this judgment. T.C. (Crl.) Nos.3/2018 and 4/2018

2. In these transferred cases, the parties are relegated before the High Court by restoring the concerned writ petition(s) to the file of the concerned High Court to its original number limited to consider relief of discharge/bail/quashing, as the case may be, on its own merits and in accordance with law. It would be open to the parties to pursue all (other) contentions in those proceedings, except the question of validity and interpretation of the concerned provision(s) already dealt with in this judgment. The transferred cases are disposed of accordingly. W.P. (Crl.) Nos. 169/2020, 370/2021, 454/2021 and 475/2021 A B C D E F G

(a) These writ petitions involve issues relating to Finance Bill/ Money Bill. Hence, the same are delinked, to be heard along with Civil H 724 SUPREME COURT REPORTS [2022] 6 S.C.R. A Appeal No.8588 of 2019 titled ‘Rojer Mathew vs. South Indian Bank Ltd. & Ors.’. W.P. (Crl.) Nos. 251/2018 and 532/2021 (b) In these writ petitions, as the relief claimed was only regarding the validity and interpretation of the provisions of the 2002 Act, the same are disposed of in terms of this judgment. W.P. (Crl.) Nos. 152/2016, 202/2017, 26/2018, 33/2018, 75/ 2018, 117/2018, 173/2018, 175/2018, 184/2018, 226 of 2018, 309/2018, 333/2018, 9/2019, 16/2019, 49/2019, 122/2019, 127/2019, 139/2019, 147/2019, 205/2019, 217/2019, 244/ 2019, 272/2019, 283/2019, 289/2019, 300/2019, 308/2019, 326/2019, 365/2019, 367/2019, 39/2020, 259/2020, 60/2020, 91/2020, 239/2020, 267/2020, 366/2020, 385/2020, 404/2020, 429/2020, 18/2021, 19/2021, 21/2021, 27/2021, 66/2021, 179/2021, 199/2021, 207/2021, 239/2021, 263 of 2021, 268/ 2021, 282/2021, 303/2021, 305/2021, 323/2021 and 453/ 2021 (c) In these writ petitions as further relief of bail/discharge/quashing has been prayed, the same are disposed of in terms of this judgment with liberty to the private parties to pursue further reliefs before the appropriate forum, leaving all contentions in that regard open, to be decided on its own merits. Crl. A. Nos. 1269/2017, 1270/2017, 223/2018, 391-392/ 2018, 793-794/2018, 1210/2018 and 682/2019 SLP (Crl.) Nos. 4634/2014, 9987/2015, 10018/2015, 10019/ 2015, 993/2016, 1271-1272/2017, 2890/2017, 5487/2017, 1701-1703/2018, 1705/2018, 5444/2018, 6922/2018, 8156/ 2018, 5350/2019, 8174/2019, 9652/2019, 10627/2019, 260/ 2020, 3474/2020, 6128/2020, 609/2021, 734/2021, 1355/ 2021, 1403/2021, 1440/2021, 1586/2021, 1855/2021, 1920/ 2021, 2237/2021, 2250/2021, 2435/2021, 2818/2021, 3228/ 2021, 3274/2021, 3439/2021, 3514/2021, 3629/2021, 3769/ 2021, 3813/2021, 3921/2021, 4024/2021, 4834/2021, 5156/ 2021, 5174/2021, 5252/2021, 5457/2021, 5652/2021, 5696- 97/2021, 6189/2021, 7021-23/2021 and 8429/2021 SLP (C) Nos. 28394/2011, 28922/2011, 29273/2011 and 8764-67/2021 B C D E F G H VIJAY MADANLAL CHOUDHARY & ORS. v. UNION OF INDIA & ORS. [A. M. KHANWILKAR, J.] 725 Diary Nos. 9360/2018, 9365/2018, 17000/2018, 17462/2018, 20250/2018 and 22529/2018, 8626/2021 and 11605/2021 A

These appeals/petitions are de-tagged and ordered to be listed separately before appropriate Bench as the impugned judgment in the concerned case deals with the prayer for bail/discharge/quashing. This relief will have to be decided on case-to-case basis. Accordingly, these matters be listed separately before appropriate Bench. The Registry to do the needful in this regard. 709WP (Crl.) Nos. 336/2018, 173/2019, 212/2019, 253/2019, 261/2019, 266/2019, 273/2019, 285/2019, 288/2019, 298/ 2019, 299/2019, 306/2019, 346/2019, 09/2020, 35/2020, 49/ 2020, 52/2020, 240/2020 and 329/2020 WP (C) Nos. 1401/2020 and 56/2021 SLP (Crl.) Nos. 1534/2018, 2971/2018, 7408/2018, 11049/ 2018, 11839/2019, 1732/2020, 2023/2020 and 6303/2020; 710WP (Crl.) Nos. 119/2019, 239/2019, 263/2019, 36/2020, 124/2020, 137/2020, 140/2020, 142/2020, 145/2020, 228/ 2020, 69/2021, 359/2021 and 520/2021 SLP (Crl.) Nos. 1114/2018, 1115/2018, 618/2020, 2814/2020, 6456/2020, 6660/2020, 6338/2021 and 6847/2021; 711WP (Crl.) Nos. 118/2019, 267/2019, 286/2019, 287/2019, 303/2019, 305/2019, 309/2019, 313/2019, 28/2020, 61/2020, 89/2020, 90/2020, 93/2020, 184/2020, 221/2020, 223/2020, 285/2020, 286/2020, 410/2020, 411/2020, 04/2021, 06/2021, 33/2021, 40/2021, 47/2021, 144/2021 and 301/2021 SLP (Crl.) Nos. 244/2019, 3647/2019, 4322-24/2019, 4546/ 2019, 5153/2019, 9541/2019, 647/2020, 3366/2020, 5536/ 2020, 1031/2021, 1072/2021, 1073/2021, 1107/2021, 2050- 54/2021 and 6834/2019 SLP (C) No. 20310/2021 Diary No. 31616/2021; 709 These matters relate to the Customs Act, 1962 710 These matters relate to the Companies Act, 2013 711 These matters relate to Central Goods and Services Tax Act, 2017 B C D E F G H 726 SUPREME COURT REPORTS [2022] 6 S.C.R. A B C D E F G H 712WP (Crl.) Nos. 05/2020, 311/2020, 380/2020, 387/2020 SLP (Crl.) Nos. 4078/2018, 8111/2019 and 6172/2020 Transferred Case (Crl.) No. 5/2018 Diary No. 41063/2015

In these cases, the challenge is regarding the validity and interpretation of other statutes (other than 2002 Act), such as Indian Penal Code, 1860, Code of Criminal Procedure, 1973, Customs Act, 1962, Prevention of Corruption Act, 1988, Companies Act, 2013, Central Goods & Services Act, 2017, etc. Hence, the same are delinked and be placed before the appropriate Bench “group-wise/Act-wise” as indicated above. The Registry to do the needful in that regard.

The interim relief granted in the petitions/appeals which are disposed of in terms of this order, to continue for a period of four weeks from today, to enable the private parties to take recourse to appropriate remedies before the concerned forum, if so advised.

The interim relief granted in petitions/appeals, which are delinked and ordered to be listed separately or otherwise, shall continue for four weeks from today, with liberty to the parties to mention for early listing of the concerned case including for continuation/vacation of the interim relief. Bibhuti Bhushan Bose Issues Answered. 712 These matters relate to Indian Penal Code, 1860, Prevention of Corruption Act, 1988, Information Technology Act, 2000, Foreign Contribution (Regulation) Act, 2010, etc.