V. Ramasubramanian JUDGMENT
A.S. Bopanna, J.
1. Leave granted.
2. The Appellant is before this Court assailing the order dated 13.08.2020 passed by the High Court of Karnataka in WP No. 8031 of 2020. Through the said common order the High Court has disposed of two writ petitions but the consideration herein relates to the issue raised in Writ Petition No. 8031 of 2020 which was filed before the High Court, by the Appellant herein raising the issue relating to the freezing of their bank account.
3. When the Special Leave Petition was listed for admission, the learned Senior Counsel for the Appellant while assailing the order passed by the High Court, inter alia contended that the freezing of the bank accounts maintained by the Appellant company has prejudiced the Appellant, inasmuch as, the amount in the account which belongs to the Appellant is made unavailable to them due to which statutory payments to be made to the Competent Authorities under various enactments is withheld and the payment of salary which is due to the employees is also prevented. In that background, this Court though had not found any reason to interfere with the initiation of the proceedings under the Prevention of Money-Laundering Act, 2002 ('PMLA' for short) had, however, limited the scope of consideration in this appeal on the issue of defreezing the bank account so as to enable the Appellant to make the statutory payments. In that view, notice had been issued to the Respondent through the order dated 11.09.2020 in the following manner - "issue notice restricted to the purpose of enabling necessary payment returnable within two weeks". The Respondent on being served, having appeared has filed the counter affidavit on behalf of Respondent No. 4.
4. In that background we have heard Mr. Mukul Rohatgi, learned Senior Advocate for the Appellant and Mr. S.V. Raju, learned Additional Solicitor General for the Respondent No. 4 and perused the petition papers.
5. The instant appeal arises out of the proceedings initiated by Respondent No. 4 against the Appellant under the PMLA. The analogous matter, which was considered by the High Court along with the writ petition which is the subject matter herein related to the action initiated by the Central Bureau of Investigation ('CBI' for short) for the alleged predicate offence and the instant proceedings is a fall out of the same. It is in that background the Enforcement Directorate in order to track the money trail relating to the predicate offence and prevent layering of the same has initiated the proceedings under the PMLA. In the said process the Deputy Director, Directorate of Enforcement through the communication dated 15.05.2020 addressed to the Anti Money-Laundering Officer ('AML' for short) of Respondents No. 1 to 3 Banks instructed them that the accounts maintained by the Appellant company be 'debit freezed/stop operations' until further orders, with immediate effect. It is in that light the Appellant claiming to be aggrieved filed WP No. 8031 of 2020 before the High Court seeking for issue of an appropriate writ to quash the communication dated 15.05.2020 issued for debit freezing the account No. 914020014786978 maintained with the Respondent No. 1, account No. 200006044354 maintained with the Respondent No. 2 and the account No. 39305709999 maintained with the Respondent No. 3. The Appella........