The Madras High Court has refused to issue a direction to the Tamil Nadu government and Directorate of Vigilance and Anti-Corruption (DVAC) to forward all First Information Reports (FIRs) registered under the Prevention of Corruption Act, 1988 to the Enforcement Directorate (ED) for simultaneous registration of Enforcement Case Information Reports (ECIRs) under the Prevention of Money Laundering Act, 2002.
The First Division Bench of Chief Justice S.V. Gangapurwala and Justice D. Bharatha Chakravarthy rejected the plea to issue such a direction after pointing out that neither the State government nor the DVAC was legally mandated to forward the FIRs to the ED. “In the absence of any legal provision, direction cannot be issued in that regard,” the Bench wrote while disposing of a public interest litigation (PIL) petition.
The petitioner, R. Karthikeyan’s counsel, had contended that offences under the Prevention of Corruption Act were scheduled offences under the Prevention of Money Laundering Act (PMLA), and that the ED was the competent authority to investigate, track and trace this ill-gotten money. Therefore, he claimed that the DVAC, being the predicate agency, was duty-bound to inform the ED of all FIRs registered on charges of corruption.
