The Tamil Nadu government has amended its prayer in a writ petition filed before the Madras High Court against the Enforcement Directorate’s (ED) searches and seizures at the Tamil Nadu State Marketing Corporation (TASMAC) headquarters in Chennai.
The amendment petition filed by the state government on Monday and the two writ petitions filed by TASMAC, before the Madras High court, seeking to declare the entire search operations illegal and to inject the ED from harassing its staff, will come up for hearing on Tuesday. The amendment petition filed by the government seems to be a constant decision as the division bench of Madras High Court consisting of Justices MS Ramesh and N Senthilkumar, having the portfolio for hearing PMLA cases recused themselves. On March 20, when the state government and TASMAC filed the petitions, the bench heard it and passed certain comments. Justices Ramesh and SenthilKumar raised questions on the rationale behind the ED detaining long hours the officers and employees of TASMAC during the searches from March 6 to 8, 2025. The Justices had passed comments asking how a blanket order can be passed can be issued preventing the ED from conducting searches and seizure operations in any money laundering case in the state without the government’s consent.
The state government in its amendment petition had amended its prayer urging the court to interpret or read the definition of ‘person’ under Section 2(1)(s) of the Prevention of Money Laundering Act (PMLA), 2002. The amendment prayer requests that the definition should be read in a way “that it excludes authorities, regulators, or officers of either the Central or State governments.” The government also seeks a declaration that officers of the state to be obligated under the PMLA should be limited to providing assistance to ED officials, as per the law.
In its writ petition the government has also sought direction to the central investigating agency to call only the officers who are authorised and notified under Section 54 of the PMLA to assist the agency in the enforcement of the Act. The petition also sought the ED to ask officers under section 54 and not under section 17 or section 50 of the PMLA. Section 17 of the PMLA act confers powers on the ED to conduct searches and seizure operations while section 50 gives power to the ED to summon individuals, order of records and record statements. It also sought a direction from the court to direct ED not to enter into the premises of the offices of the state-owned corporations and declare the searches conducted by ED from March 6 to 8, 2025 as illegal, unconstitutional, and invalid the action.
Earlier, a week after the raids, the state government and TASMAC had sought a court declaration that the ED raids are illegal, challenging the authority to investigate government departments and entities without prior consent. On March 25, the bench recused themselves from hearing the petitions leading to various suspicions like alleged pressure from Delhi.
Meanwhile, S. Muralidharan, an activist from Chennai, has filed an imploding petition before the Madras High Court to include him as a party in the case.
On the other hand, fair trade regulator, Competition Commission of India (CCI) has also ordered an investigation against TASMAC over allegations in Beer procurement after an individual filed a complaint. The Commission has directed its Director General to investigate into a complaint filed against TASMAC over allegations that it is restricting competition in the state's beer market by favouring select brands. He has been directed to investigate and submit the report within 60 days. The complaint said that TASMAC has been purchasing and selling only a few beer brands, while limiting access to other brands in the market and discouraging competition in business. He also argued that thus practice violated Section 4 of the Competition Act, 2002, which prohibits abuse of dominant position.
The amendment writ petition filed by the Tamil Nadu government, the activists imploding petition and the petition filed by CCI, spell huge trouble for the DMK and its Excise minister V Senthil Balaji, who is already on bail in the cash for jobs scam case.