The court affirmed that actions taken under the Prevention of Money Laundering Act are invalid without a subsisting predicate offense, establishing that quashing of an FIR necessitates the quashing of subsequent ECIRs and related proceedings.

JUDGMENT

Anish Dayal, J. These writ petitions were heard together and have sought similar prayers. For ease of reference, various reliefs sought in each of these writ petitions (and accompanying applications), presented in different permutations and combinations, could effectively be enumerated as under:

i. Issue a Writ of Declaration or any Writ, Order or Direction of like nature declaring Section 2(1)(u), Section 50 and Explanation to Section 44 of the Prevention of Money Laundering Act, 2002 to be unconstitutional as being in violation of Articles 14, 19(1)(g), 19(6), 20(3) and 21 of the Constitution of India;

ii. Quash and set aside the impugned ECIR no. ECIR/07/HIU/2021 and stay all proceedings arising therefrom;

iii. Quash the summons issued in respect of ECIR No. ECIR/07/HIU/2021;

iv. Issue a Writ of Certiorari or any Writ, Order or Direction of like nature directing the calling of records in relation to ECIR No. ECIR/07/HIU/2021;

v. Issue a Writ of Prohibition or any Writ, Order or Direction of like nature restraining the Respondents from taking any coercive action in respect of the ECIR No. ECIR/07/HIU/2021 including conducting search and seizures at residences/office or issuing look out circulars or any other restrictive order;

vi. Quash and set aside Look out Circulars issued against some of the petitioners.

2. While these petitions were pending before this Court, the Hon'ble Supreme Court of India delivered its judgement in Vijay Madanlal Choudhary & Ors. Vs. Union of India & Ors., 2022 SCC OnLine SC 929 on 27th July, 2022 deciding on the issue of constitutionality and vires of various provisions of the Prevention of Money Laundering Act, 2002 ("PMLA") inter alia Section 2(1)(u), Section 50 and Explanation to Section 44. Considering that the Hon'ble Supreme Court in Vijay Madanlal Choudhary (supra) has already considered the issue of constitutionality of various provisions of PMLA, the issue of granting relief for prayers in the nature of para 1 (i) above does not arise. The judgement of the Hon'ble Supreme Court is binding on this Court and all parties in these petitions before this Court and there is no reason for this Court to issue any further declaration in that regard. Prayers sought in all these petitions before this Court in the nature of para 1 (i) above therefore do not survive and are infructuous, having been dealt with by the judgement of the Hon'ble Supreme Court in the matter of Vijay Madanlal Choudhary (supra).

Relief sought by the Petitioners

3. The immediate concern of the petitioners relates to prayers in the nature of para 1 (ii)-(vi), whereby the petitioners are concerned about the continuation of proceedings in relation to the ECIR No. ECIR/07/HIU/2021 ("the said ECIR") issued by the Directorate of Enforcement ("ED") despite the predicate offence registered under FIR No. 129/2021 ("the said FIR") having been quashed by the judgment dated 4th May, 2022 of the High Court of Bombay. The petitioners pray for issue of a writ of certiorari setting aside summons issued by the ED to various petitioners in respect of the said ECIR, the Look Out Circular ("LOC") and any other consequential proceedings emanating out of the said ECIR, and quash the same in view of the predicate offence having been quashed by judgment dated 4th May, 2022 passed by the High Court of Bombay in relation to the said FIR. The thrust of the petitioners' contention is based upon the conclusion of the Hon'ble Supreme Court in Vijay Madan