Defendants must receive legible copies of all relied-upon documents to ensure procedural fairness and meaningful participation in proceedings under the Prevention of Money Laundering Act.

JUDGMENT

Prathiba M. Singh, J. (Oral)

1. This hearing has been done through hybrid mode.

2. The present petition has been filed by the Petitioner seeking directions to the Respondent - Adjudicating Authority, PMLA, to supply the legible copies of all the Relied-Upon Documents ("RUDs") annexed along with the Original Complaint bearing No.1802/2022. The Petitioner further seeks directions to the Respondent to extend the time period for filing the reply to the Show Cause Notice dated 22nd September, 2022, in accordance with the mandate of the PMLA.

3. The background of the case is that a provisional attachment order dated 4th August, 2022 was passed by the Directorate of Enforcement ("ED") against the Petitioner, whereby movable/immovable properties, belonging to the Petitioner, his HUF and his son, valued at Rs.14,50,74,558/-, were attached by the ED. Subsequently, on 31st August, 2022, the ED filed the Original Complaint in the matter concerning the impugned provisional attachment order, before the Respondent - Adjudicating Authority. On 22nd September, 2022, a show cause notice was issued against the Petitioner by the Adjudicating Authority. The said show cause notice was stated to have been deliberated on 30th September, 2022, and the Petitioner was directed to file its reply to the Original Complaint by or before 4th November, 2022. It is the submission of the Petitioner that the said show cause notice was neither accompanied by the Original Complaint nor any of the RUDs.

4. Thereafter, the Petitioner sought the Original Complaint and the RUDs, and the same were served upon the Petitioner by ED, on 13th October, 2022. However, while scrutinizing the RUDs, it was revealed to the Petitioner that several key documents in the said RUDs were illegible or cropped out. An application was accordingly preferred by the Petitioner seeking legible copies of the said RUDs, and further time was sought for filing of the reply to the Original Complaint.

5. Vide email dated 27th October, 2022, the petitioner was informed that the Respondent has considered the request of the Petitioner and had granted 10 additional days to file the reply. However, it is submitted that the issue concerning the supply of illegible copies of the RUDs was not considered by the Respondent. Yet again, the Petitioner requested the Respondent to supply the legible copies of the RUDs, vide email dated 27th October, 2022. In response, the Respondent extended the time for filing of the reply till 22nd November, 2022, however, failed to consider the issue relating to supply of legible copies of the RUDs. The response dated 11th November, 2022 of the Respondent - Adjudicating Authority, reads as under:

"I am directed to inform that (D-1 to D-3) are called upon to file their written reply(s) on the email of Adjudicating Authority (registraraapmla-rev@nic.in) in MS Word as well as PDF Format or on or before 20.11.2022. You are also required to file the reply simultaneously on the email of the Complainant (dddlzoi3- ed@gov.in ). It is also made clear that filling of the soft copy of reply in the MS Word as well as PDF Format is not a substitute for filling of reply in hard copy. Therefore, a reply in hard copy along with the copy of the email regarding submission of reply in soft format must be sent to the authority as well as to the Complainant so as to reach them on or before 10th day of the submission of reply on email as aforesaid. In view of the time limitation involved, non-adherence to time schedule may result in non-plac