Opposition parties record 'deep apprehension' over Supreme Court upholding PMLA amendments, seeks review

Senior parliamentarians of 17 opposition parties, including the usually incompatible Congress, Trinamool and AAP, came together on Wednesday to issue a joint statement, expressing dismay and concern over the recent Supreme Court verdict which upheld the special powers of the Enforcement Directorate in the Prevention of Money Laundering Act.

“We are also very disappointed that the highest judicial authority, invited to give an independent verdict on the lack of checks and balances in the Act, has virtually reproduced arguments given by the executive in support of the draconian law,” the statement said.

The statement coincides with some parties’ preparing to move the apex court to seek a review of the verdict delivered by a bench of justices AM Khanwilkar, Dinesh Maheshwari and CT Ravikumar. “We hope that the dangerous verdict will be short lived and constitutional provisions will prevail soon,” the statement said.


“We place on record our deep apprehension on the long-term implications of the recent Supreme Court judgement, upholding in entirety the amendments to the Prevention of the Money Laundering Act, 2022, without examining whether some of these amendments could have been enacted by way of the Finance Act,” the joint statement said. “If tomorrow the Supreme Court holds that the challenged amendments through the Finance Act are bad then the entire exercise would become futile and a loss of judicial time.”

The opposition representatives said they were compelled to point out “the judgement should have awaited the verdict of a larger bench for examining the constitutionality of the Finance Act route to carry out the amendments.”

They further said the far-reaching amendments “strengthened the hands of the government, indulging in political vendetta of the worst kind, by using these very amended laws relating to money laundering and investigation agencies, to target its political opponents in a mischievous and malicious manner.” Apart from Congress, Trinamool Congress and AAP, signatories to the statement included representatives of DMK, NCP, RJD, SP, CPI-M, CPI, Independent MP Kapil Sibal, Shiv Sena, RLD, KCM, IUML, RSP and MDMK.