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SC allows TMC MP’s plea that he not be called by ED during elections
A bench of justices Bela M Trivedi and Pankaj Mithal will on July 10 take up Banerjee’s petition challenging ED’s summons for questioning him in Delhi
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The Supreme Court on Wednesday allowed a request by Trinamool Congress (TMC) member of Parliament (MP) Abhishek Banerjee that he not be called by the Enforcement Directorate in connection with a money laundering case until the completion of the general elections that are slated between April and June.
A bench of justices Bela M Trivedi and Pankaj Mithal fixed July 10 to take up Banerjee’s petition in which the TMC leader has challenged the summons issued by ED for questioning him in Delhi.
“The counsel for the petitioner says that the petitioner is an MP and that he is contesting the general elections in view of which the matter be deferred till July. List this matter on July 10,” said the court.
The court took note of the submissions by senior counsel Kapil Sibal, who appeared for Banerjee, that the MP has not been summoned by ED since September 2021 and therefore, the federal agency be asked to stay its hand until the completion of the upcoming Lok Sabha polls.
“He is a sitting MP and will be contesting the election again from Diamond Harbour that is scheduled for June 1,” Sibal said while adding that ED should be asked not to summon him in the midst of the election.
To this, the bench asked the agency, represented by additional solicitor-general SV Raju, if ED was willing to accept Banerjee’s request. “If you have not called him for such a long time, let him be not called for a couple of months more...he is also contesting the elections,” it told Raju.
At first, Raju said that he would want to come back after obtaining instructions from the competent authority. However, he later agreed and said that ED would not be summoning Banerjee until the next date of the hearing. But Raju said that ED would not grant the same concession to the MP’s wife, Rujira, who has also petitioned the court against the summons.
The court also deferred the hearing of a petition filed by Nalini Chidambaram, wife of former Union minister P Chidambaram, in a case related to Saradha chit fund scam to July 10. Both Banerjee and Chidambaram have filed petitions in the court questioning ED’s power to summon people outside their ordinary place of residence.
Banerjee and Rujira in March 2022 filed their appeal against an order passed by the Delhi high court earlier that year dismissing their petition against the ED summons. The couple challenged the September 10, 2021, summons issued by ED on the grounds that they should not be required to appear in New Delhi but in their home town or place of domicile in Kolkata.
The summons were related to a case of alleged illegal coal mining that came to light in 2020 following a complaint from the government-owned Eastern Coalfields Limited. The CBI and ED are looking into the case.
Their petition said that the case involves a question of law whether ED can assume a “pan-India jurisdiction” to summon any person, at any place of their choice in utter derogation of the fundamental rights of the witness/accused persons, principles of fair play and expeditious investigation and the provisions of the Code of Criminal Procedure and the Prevention of Money Laundering Act.
