ED appellate body yet to get chairman

NEW DELHI: Two months after the chairman of Prevention of Money Laundering Act (PMLA) Appellate Tribunal retired, the Enforcement Directorate’s appellate body is yet to get its new chairman.

No formal order/notification with regard to appointment of the new chairman has been issued so far. Justice Sunil Gaur, the retired Delhi High Court judge who had rejected the bail plea of former finance minister P Chidambaram in the INX media case, was reportedly tipped to be the new head of PMLA Appellate Tribunal.

However, no formal communication with regard to his purported appointment has been conveyed to him so far, two persons with direct knowledge of the matter told ET. Justice Manmohan Singh retired as chairman of the PMLA Appellate Tribunal on September 21. As per procedure, the government in consultation with the nominee of the Chief Justice of India appoints the chairman of the Appellate Tribunal.


Sources quoted earlier said the new appointee is formally informed and his/her consent is sought after a decision is taken.

“It is very rare that the new appointee turns down the appointment,” said one of the sources. He added that no formal communication has been sent to Justice Gaur so far by the government.

Justice Sunil Gaur (retd), whose denial of protection from arrest to Chidambaram in the INX media case paved the way for his arrest by the Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) and later by the Enforcement Directorate (ED).

Justice Gaur, in his August 20 order, had held that Chidambaram appears to be the “kingpin” of the alleged scandal. This paved way for Chidambaram’s arrest by CBI on August 21.

In a sharply worded order, Justice Gaur, who retired as Delhi High Court Judge on August 23, termed the INX Media a “classic case of money laundering” and said that it was “preposterous” to say that Chidambaram’s prosecution was “baseless, politically motivated and an act of vendetta”.

Chidambaram is currently in Tihar jail after ED arrested him. Chidambaram’s bail plea will come up for hearing in Supreme Court next week.