Apex Court Disposes Of Pleas Filed By ED Against Stay Of Summonses To District Collectors Of Tamil Nadu In Illegal Sand Mining Case

The Supreme Court, today, disposed of the petitions filed by the Directorate of Enforcement ('ED') challenging the stay order passed by the Madras High Court against the summonses issued to various District Collectors in the State of Tamil Nadu in a case related to illegal sand mining.

The Bench of Justice Bela M Trivedi and Justice Satish Chandra Sharma ordered, "Vide an order dated 2 April 2024, this Court had directed the Collectors to appear before the ED on 25.04.2024. Accordingly, the concerned DCs had remained present and submitted documents. However, some of the requisite documents are still not produced by them. Accordingly, the matter was adjourned from time to time to see the status of the production of the documents. On 06.08.2024, Learned Senior Counsel Mr Kapil Sibal, appearing for the Respondents, stated that the Respondents would furnish the documents. The documents are submitted but the petitioner is not able to download them. The Petitioner submitted that they are not able to download 36 documents. List has been handed over to the Petitioner. Senior Counsel for the Respondents submits that they will publish the documents within a week. Accordingly, no further orders are required to be made. Accordingly, the Petitions are disposed of. As per the office report, Respondents have filed review petitions which are pending before..., the said review petitions are also disposed of."

Senior Advocate Kapil Sibal and AAG Amit Anand Tiwari appeared on behalf of the State of Tamil Nadu and submitted that there are around 2300 FIRs and the ED is not able to download 36 FIRs. It was submitted that the respondents shall furnish all the documents available to them as well as the documents which are available on the website but are not being downloaded.

Previously, the Supreme Court had told the ED not to harass the collectors and retain them unnecessarily. The Supreme Court had reprimanded the District Collectors from various districts of the State of Tamil Nadu who failed to appear in person before the Enforcement Directorate (ED) after the Supreme Court directed the collectors to appear before the ED. 

On February 27, 2024, the Court had stayed the Madras High Court's interim stay order on the operation and execution of the summonses issued by the ED and had observed in its order that the Writ Petition filed by the State of Tamil Nadu before the Madras High Court challenging the Summons is prima facie misconceived.

In the Special Leave Petition filed by the ED against the order of stay by the High Court of summonses issued by the ED, the Apex Court had directed the District Collectors to appear and respond to the summonses issued by the ED. The Madras High Court had in November 2023 granted an interim stay on the summonses issued by the ED to the District Collectors in Tamil Nadu. Therefore, aggrieved, ED approached the Apex Court challenging the order of the High Court. The Bench, consequently, had given the last opportunity to the Collectors to appear before the ED in response to the summons issued on April 26, 2024.

Cause Title: Directorate of Enforcement vs. The State of Tamil Nadu and Ors. (SLP (Crl.) No(s).1959-1963/2024)