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A Delhi High Court bench of Chief Justice D.N. Patel and Justice Jyoti Singh today deferred the hearing of Mehbooba Mufti’s plea against provisions of the Prevention of Money Laundering Act, 2002 (PMLA) to December 23 upon the Central government's submission that it has moved a transfer petition to the Supreme Court, which is to be heard within a week.

The said plea by Mehbooba Mufti challenged Section 50 of the PMLA Act, which gives powers to authorities regarding summons, production of documents and to give evidence; and sought a stay on the summon issued by the Enforcement Directorate (ED).

"The provision needs to be revisited in light of a verdict passed by Supreme Court last year," she has said. She has further stated that Section 50 of PMLA empowers ED officers to summon any person to give evidence or produce records, and all those summoned are bound to answer questions put to them, and to produce the documents.

Further, she stated that that she has not been informed if she is being summoned as an accused or as a witness and that she has also not been informed of what she is being summoned in connection with, and the scheduled offence under the PMLA which gave rise to the proceedings in respect of which summons has been issued to her.

Further, she submitted that she is not the subject of investigation, nor is she an accused, in any of the scheduled offences under the PMLA, to the best of her knowledge.

The plea claimed that ever since Mufti was released from preventive detention following the formal abrogation of Article 370 of the Constitution, there have been a series of hostile acts by the state, against her, her acquaintances and old family friends, who have all been summoned by the ED and a roving inquiry about her personal, political and financial affairs was made, in the course of which their personal devices have been seized.

Solicitor Gneral Tushar Mehta, representing the Center sought an adjournment stating that a transfer petition is being moved to the Supreme Court.

Cause Title: Mehbooba Mufti vs Union Of India & Anr.