The High Court Monday listed the plea of National Conference President Farooq Abdullah against the Enforcement Directorate order attaching his assets for March 18.
A bench of Justice D S Thakur directed the listing of the case after hearing Solicitor General Tushar Mehta who appeared for the ED through virtual mode and senior counsel Sidharth Luthra with Shri Singh and senior counsel Javid Ahmad Kawoosa with Areeb Javid Kawoosa on behalf of Abdullah.
Three-time chief minister Abdullah has challenged the jurisdiction of the ED to attach his assets in connection with a money laundering probe linked to alleged financial irregularities in the Jammu and Kashmir Cricket Association (JKCA).
On 18 December 2020, ED issued a provisional order attaching certain properties of Abdullah under the Prevention of Money Laundering Act (PMLA).
Objections could be filed before the Adjudicating Authority under PMLA within six months.
In his plea Abdullah submits that his ancestral and family properties in Jammu and Kashmir had been illegally attached by the ED as it had no jurisdiction to do so.
“On the date of the registration of the ECIR (Enforcement Commission Information Report) and the initiation of investigation, the state of Jammu and Kashmir was governed by the constitution of Jammu and Kashmir, 1956, and had special status in terms of Article 370 of the constitution of India,” the petition reads.
It pleads that on 28 December 2018, the ED registered the ECIR with section 120B of the Ranbir Penal Code in the FIR and failed to appreciate that it had no jurisdiction to register it.
“The PMLA was not a law which could extend to the jurisdiction of the state of Jammu and Kashmir, as the parliament was not having legislative competence to enact the said law in terms of the constitution (Application to Jammu and Kashmir) Order, 1954,” the petitioner says.
He says that RPC enacted in the state of Jammu and Kashmir on 6 August 1932 was not a central law nor was Section 120B of the RPC or any other provision of it contained in the Schedule to the PMLA.
The ECIR was registered by the ED pursuant to filing of chargesheet (final report) on 11 August 2018 before the CJM Srinagar by the CBI New Delhi in the FIR it had registered.
The petitioner submits that his attached properties were unrelated to the alleged criminal activity mentioned in the FIR and is a continuing violation of his fundamental rights.
The petitioner submits that JKCA is a society registered under the Jammu and Kashmir Societies Registration Act, and is governed by the Rules of the Jammu and Cricket Association, 1957.
“All properties attached by the ED are either ancestral or acquired by the petitioner prior to the date of the alleged offences. The attached properties were acquired prior to the alleged commission of the offences, and hence were not involved in any alleged money-laundering or related criminal activity.”
The petition is seeking quashing of Original Complaint dated 15 January 2021 pending before Adjudicating Authority under PMLA along with the Provisional Attachment Order dated 18 December 2020 issued in ECIR dated 28 December 2018 as well as notice dated 5 February 2021 issued under Section 8 of PMLA 2002 by the Adjudicating Authority.