Supreme Court seeks NewsClick response to ED appeal

The Supreme Court on November 6 issued notice to NewsClick and its editor-in-chief, Prabir Purkayastha, on the Enforcement Directorate’s appeal against a Delhi High Court order quashing money-laundering proceedings against them. The court sought responses within four weeks. The appeal remains undecided, and the proceedings remain quashed while it is considered. The bench of Chief Justice Surya Kant and Justices Joymalya Bagchi and V. Mohana issued the notice while hearing the ED’s challenge to the High Court’s May 29 judgment. The matter was listed for further hearing on December 14. The ED argues that the High Court quashed its Enforcement Case Information Report, or ECIR, without assessing the merits of the money-laundering case. The agency also challenges the High Court’s treatment of its evidence and has argued that judgment followed the end of hearings after a lengthy delay. Those are arguments in the appeal, not findings by the Supreme Court. The High Court had quashed a 2020 Delhi Police Economic Offences Wing FIR and the related ED ECIR. It held that the FIR did not disclose the alleged offences and that the money-laundering proceedings could not continue once the...