Madras High Court Issues Notice To Adjudicating Authority Under PMLA For Continuing Proceedings Despite HC Stay

The bench of Justice MS Ramesh and Justice V Lakshminarayanan issued notice to Chairperson Pradeep Kumar Upadhyay and Registrar/Administrative Officer Nasreen Siiddiqui in a contempt petition filed by film producer Akash Bhaskaran.

“We do not appreciate the manner in which the petitioner is summoned for final arguments. Issue statutory notice to R4 and R5,” the bench said.

It may be noted that the court had, in August, issued notice to the Assistant Director of Enforcement, asking them to appear before the court. The court had also fined the Directorate Rs. 10,000 each in three petitions filed by film producer Akash Bhaskaran and businessman Vikram Ravindran against the ED's search conducted at their residence and office. The fine was imposed after the Directorate failed to file a counter affidavit despite being given a last opportunity by the court.

The producer and the businessman had moved the court challenging the ED Action. It was alleged that the ED had sealed the residential flat and the office of the petitioners since it was locked at the time of the search.

The court had then directed the Directorate to produce the documents based on which the ED had initiated the action. On perusing the documents, the court held that the authorisation based on which the ED had conducted searches at the offices and residences of the petitioners was prima facie without jurisdiction since there was no incriminating material against them. The court also observed that the materials produced by the ED had no semblance of any information on which the ED had decided to take action against the petitioners.

The court had thus, on June 20, 2025, stayed all proceedings initiated by the ED against the petitioners.

The present contempt petition was filed by Baskar contending that despite the order, he had received a show cause notice from the Adjudicating Authority, together with a covering letter dated July 11, 2025 sent by Vikas Kumar, enclosing a copy of the Recording of reasons under Section 8(1) of the PMLA and a note for compliance with reference to the notice under Section 8(1), a copy of the original application and one set of relied upon documents.

When the matter was taken up today, the counsel for the petitioner informed the court that the Adjudicating Authority had issued a notice to him on 20^th September, asking him to appear for the final hearing of the case on October 8^th 2025. Upon inquiry, the ED informed the court that it had already communicated the order with respect to staying of the investigation to the Adjudicating Authority.

The court then said that it would issue notice to the authority and ordered accordingly.

Case Title: Akash Baskaran v The Joint Director and Others

Case NO: Cont P 2708 of 2025