The Supreme Court’s ruling that Enforcement Directorate is bound to provide a copy of the grounds of arrest at the time of an accused being arrested under money laundering charges is applicable only in cases after the October 3 judgment, the top court said on Friday.

The top court’s remarks came at a time when several petitions have been filed across courts, alleging illegal arrests by ED on the grounds that the federal agency had only orally intimated the grounds of the arrest to the accused. In its October 3 ruling, in the Pankaj Bansal v Union of India case, the top court said: “We hold that it will be necessary for a copy of grounds of arrest to be furnished to the accused at the time of arrest.” While the ruling held that it will apply to cases “henceforth”, a petition was filed by Supertech founder Ram Kishore Arora, alleging he was not given a copy of grounds of his arrest when he was held in June this year.

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“Non furnishing of grounds of arrest in writing till the date of pronouncement of judgment in Pankaj Bansal case could neither be held illegal nor the action of concerned officer in not furnishing the same in writing could be faulted with,” a bench of justices Bela M Trivedi and Satish Chandra Sharma said. “…the person arrested, if he is informed or made aware orally about the grounds of arrest at the time of his arrest and is furnished a written communication … within requisite time of 24 hours of his arrest, that would be sufficient compliance of not only Section 19 of PMLA but also of Article 22(1)…” it added.

Section 19 of the Prevention of Money Laundering Act (PMLA) deals with the power to arrest while Article 22(1) of Constitution says “no person who is arrested shall be detained in custody without being informed, as soon as may be, of the grounds for such arrest…”