Supreme Court: In a petition filed under Article 136 of the Constitution of India by the Enforcement Directorate challenging the order dated 14-06-2023 passed by Delhi High Court in Preeti Chandra v. Enforcement Directorate, (2023) 3 HCC (Del) 1 granting bail to Unitech Promoter Sanjay Chandra's wife, Preeti Chandra in a money laundering case, the Bench comprising of Dr. DY Chandrachud, CJI, J.B. Pardiwala and Manoj Misra, JJ. refused to interfere with the High Court's order.
The Court perused Section
While noting that Preeti Chandra had been in custody for over 620 days, the Court observed that “Considerations which weigh in the grant of bail are distinct from those which are relevant to the adjudication of an application for cancellation of bail.” The Court pointed out that the High Court exercised its jurisdiction to conclude for bail to Preeti Chandra, and therefore refused to interfere with the High Court's order.
While allowing bail in the instant matter, the Court directed Preeti Chandra not to leave the limits of National Capital Region (‘NCR'), report to the investigating officer once every two weeks, and also restricted her from disposing of any property without specific permission from the Special Court.
[Directorate of Enforcement v. Preeti Chandra, 2023 SCC OnLine SC 930, Order dated 4-08-2023]
Advocates who appeared in this matter
For Petitioners: Additional Solicitor General S.V. Raju, Advocate on Record Mukesh Kumar Maroria, Advocate Zoheb Hussain, Advocate Padmesh Mishra, Advocate Annam Venkatesh
For Respondents: Senior Advocate Kapil Sibal, Senior Advocate Siddharth Aggarwal, Advocate Neeha Nagpal, Advocate Adit Pujari, Advocate on Record Malak Manish Bhatt, Advocate Vishvendra Tomar, Advocate Maitreya Subramaniam, Advocate Chaitanya Sundriyal, Advocate Zeeshan Thomas
