Confusion over listing of Prevention of Money Laundering Act cases in Madras High Court

Madras High Court faces confusion over listing PMLA petitions, directing Registry to clarify before Chief Justice.

Confusion has arisen in the Madras High Court on the issue of listing petitions related to the Prevention of Money Laundering Act (PMLA) of 2002.

A Division Bench has directed the Registry to take the issue to the notice of Acting Chief Justice (ACJ) D. Krishnakumar in order to clarify whether the petitions should be listed before Division Benches, comprising two judges, or before single judge benches.

The Madras High Court follows the Criminal Rules of Practice, 2019 and the Madras High Court Writ Rules, 2021 with respect to listing of cases. While writ petitions in general get listed before single judges whose orders could be challenged before Division Benches; select writ petitions such as those filed for issuance of habeas corpus get listed directly before Division Benches because they deal with personal liberty.

Similarly, most criminal cases too get listed only before single judges but for exceptions such as appeals, filed against imprisonment of over 10 years, which get listed directly before Division Benches. However, orders passed by single judges on the criminal side (including the writ petitions filed in criminal matters) could be challenged only before the Supreme Court and not before Division Benches.

On July 23, 2024, a Division Bench of Justices M.S. Ramesh and Sunder Mohan wondered why two criminal original petitions filed against PMLA proceedings had been listed before them and not before a single judge as was the practice followed by almost all High Courts in the country. The Registry explained that it was because of an administrative order passed on January 25, 2017, by the then Chief Justice Sanjay Kishan Kaul (since retired).

Ploughing through the records, the judges found that the former CJ had passed the administrative order following a letter written to him by Justice P.N. Prakash (since retired) of the High Court on December 15, 2016. In the letter, the judge had opined that appellate tribunals under the PMLA were headed by retired High Court judges and therefore, it would be appropriate to list PMLA petitions directly before Division Benches.

However, the Bench led by Justice Ramesh clarified that the 2017 administrative order of the CJ should be confined only to petitions filed against orders passed by the appellate tribunals and not to every other petition connected with the money laundering law. Since PMLA had both civil as well as criminal consequences, intra court appeal should be permitted for certain petitions filed against PMLA proceedings, the Bench ordered.