SC stays pronouncement of HC verdict in Jaffar Sait’s plea to quash ED case

Jaffar Sait. File Photo
| Photo Credit: HANDOUT_E_MAIL

The Supreme Court on Friday decided to examine retired Director General of Police M.S. Jaffar Sait’s claim that the Madras High Court allowed his petition to quash a money laundering case against him on August 21, only to “re-hear” the plea two days later and reserve it for judgment.

A Bench headed by Justice A.S. Oka directed the Registrar General of Madras High Court to enquire into whether the high court had really quashed the case and report back confidentially before September 30, the next date of hearing.

“The Register General will examine the record of the case as well as the data uploaded as an Officer of this Court and will report to this Court whether the petition was disposed of on August 21, 2024… He will submit a report to this court in a sealed cover before the returnable date,” the top court ordered.

Meanwhile, the top court stayed any pronouncement of judgment in the case by the high court.

Mr. Sait, represented by senior advocates Siddharth Luthra and R. Balasubramanian and advocate Ram Sankar, said the chargesheet for the predicate case, which involved the irregular allotment of housing board plots, was quashed by the high court in 2019. The high court’s decision had been confirmed by the Supreme Court the same year.

The retired police chief had approached the high court again to quash the Enforcement Case Information Report accusing him of money-laundering in connection with plot allotments. He had argued that the charges under the Prevention of Money Laundering Act cannot stand on its own when the chargesheet for predicate offences had already been quashed by the high court in 2019.

“The Division Bench of Justice S.M. Subramaniam and Justice V. Sivagnanam heard the quashing petition and allowed the same on August 21 by passing an order in the open court, which was widely reported. However, subsequently, on August 23, the same Division Bench posted the matter for August 28 and started a fresh hearing of the quashing petition…” the petition narrated.

It said the Supreme Court’s own judgment in Vijay Madanlal Choudhary had held that if a “person is finally discharged/acquitted of the scheduled offence or the criminal case against him is quashed by the court of competent jurisdiction, there can be no offence of money-laundering against him”.