Delhi High Court Restores ED’s Asset-Attachment Powers in Prakash Industries Coal Block Case

Overview

• Setting aside a 2022 single-judge ruling, Justices Anil Kshetarpal and Harish Vaidyanathan Shankar reinstated the ED’s authority to proceed under the PMLA.
• The court held the coal block allocation letter is an instrument conferring a right to obtain a mining lease and extract coal, which constitutes “property” under the law.
• The judgment validates ED’s power to attach the value of coal extracted and rejects an artificial cut-off tied to the 04.09.2003 allocation date.
• The Bench ruled that payment of levies after cancellation does not extinguish money-laundering liability where assets originate from criminal activity.
• ED alleges illicit proceeds of about Rs 951 crore from 2006–2015; a prior provisional attachment of roughly Rs 227 crore had been quashed, and related CBI cases continue with a Supreme Court stay on trial proceedings.