INTRODUCTION
The question of whether the Enforcement Case Information Report [“ECIR”] should be mandatorily supplied to the accused has come up before the Supreme Court on numerous occasions. In Vijay Madanlal Choudhary v. Union of India, the apex court had ruled that not only the non-supply of ECIR but also not registering the same, cannot be regarded as being a violation of Article 22 of the Constitution of India and the rights of the accused to undergo a fair trial. This position underwent a substantial change in the case of Pankaj Bansal v. Union of India, where a two-judge bench of the apex court critiqued the finding of Vijay Madanlal regarding the non- supply of ECIR. It held it to be necessary that the written grounds of arrest and ECIR be supplied to the accused with necessary omissions, as the same is needed by the accused to prepare a defence in bail proceedings and is necessary to uphold the constitutional values. As assuring as the judgment in the Pankaj Bansal case sounds, the same has been substantially diluted by the decision in Ram Kishore Arora v. Directorate of Enforcement which observed that the two-judge bench of Pankaj Bansal cannot overrule the three-judge bench in Vijay Madanlal as the same is against the doctrine of precedent and thus Vijay Madanlal “holds the field” as of date. Thus, it not only held the judgment in Pankaj Bansal to be per incuriam but also went on to apply Pankaj Bansal’s ruling in its own judgment. This has led to a conundrum where the current state of the question has been left unanswered.
Regardless of that, ECIR continues to be one of the most important documents formulated by the Enforcement Directorate [“ED”], since it is recorded only after the ED finds enough evidence to commence an investigation. Through this article, we wish to stress the notion that giving such detailed information and evidence as contained in the ECIR, is necessary for the accused’s right to a fair trial, specifically the right to prepare a defence. In order to make the argument, we have relied on a variety of literature on how the offences of money laundering are being dealt with in other countries following the FATF framework. Additionally, we have looked into human rights obligations under international treaties, which should be followed in order to ensure that the rights of the accused are protected.
