ED can summon anyone for ‘any information’: SC
Top court orders four T.N. District Collectors to appear in person before ED on April 25, raps them for not responding to agency summons, says they have no respect for law, court, and Constitution
The Supreme Court on Tuesday endorsed the sweeping powers of the Enforcement Directorate (ED), saying the Central agency could call “anybody for any information” even as it castigated four Tamil Nadu District Collectors for failing to appear in person in response to a summons issued to them by the antimoney laundering body.
The Tamil Nadu government and the Collectors informed a Bench headed by Justice Bela M. Trivedi that they had written to the ED expressing their inability to appear in person as the Lok Sabha election in Tamil Nadu was due on April 19 and they needed more time to collect the information sought by the Central agency about sand mining sites in their districts.
The Collectors said the information sought was not in their offices, but had to be collected from other branches of the district administration, verified and compiled to be presented before the ED. They had sought time till Aprilend.
The court refused to accept the Collectors’ explanation. Justice Trivedi said their conduct showed scant respect for the court’s February 27 order to appear in person before the ED on whatever date it summoned them.
“Such a cavalier approach may land them [District Collectors] in a difficult situation. This court had passed an order on February 27… Their conduct shows that these officers have no respect for this court, the law and much less to the Constitution. Such an approach is strongly deprecated,” Justice Trivedi addressed senior advocates Kapil Sibal and Amit Anand Tiwari, for Tamil Nadu, and senior advocate Mukul Rohatgi, representing the District Collectors of Vellore, Ariyalur, Karur and Tiruchi.
Mr. Sibal submitted that the officials were still gathering the data for the ED from the various offices. They were also, as District Magistrates, saddled with the responsibility of maintaining law and order and fulfilment of programmes in their jurisdictions.