High Court of Delhi grants liberty to BW BusinessWorld Media Pvt. Limited for its bonafide record in the media industry to operate its bank accounts which were frozen

The High Court of Delhi on 28th May, 2020 permitted BW BusinessWorld Media Private Limited to operate the two accounts that were frozen under directions from the Enforcement Directorate. The Single Bench of Justice Navin Chawla held that the attachment being of a specific amount, the petitioner shall be at liberty to operate the two bank accounts subject to keeping a balance of the amount so attached in the two accounts.

BW BusinessWorld Media Pvt. Ltd. had moved the Hon’ble High Court of Delhi in a challenge to a Provisional Attachment Order passed by the Enforcement Directorate under Section 5 (1) of the Prevention of Money Laundering Act, 2002 arising out of an investigation being conducted by the department in the issue of the YES Bank case against Mr. Rana Kapoor and his family.

BW BusinessWorld was advised and represented by Trust Legal, Advocates & Consultants. The matter was argued by counsel Mr. Pramod Dubey, Advocate who was instructed by Partners Mr. Sudhir Mishra, Ms. Ritwika Nanda and Ms. Petal Chandhok and Mr. Saurav Baveja.

“The Delhi High Court yet again shows the way that if you come to court with clean hands law supports you and justice prevails. The hon'ble court gave this historic order in favour of BW Businessworld as they showed their bonafide conduct. They have an unblemished record in the media industry”, stated Mr. Sudhir Mishra, Founder and Managing Partner of TrustLegal.

The matter was then tagged with five other petitions moved earlier by M/s ART Housing Finance (India) ltd., PAFM Security Solutions Management Private Ltd., Ncube Planning & Design Pvt. Ltd. Petra Asset and Facility Management Private Ltd. And Rurban Agri Ventures (India) Pvt. Ltd. challenging the same Provisional Attachment Order dated 05.05.2020 passed by the Enforcement Directorate.

On 01.06.2020, all the six petitions were listed where the counsels of the parties sought a modification in the interim orders passed earlier in the petitions to a relief similar to the order dated 28.05.2020 passed in the matter of BusinessWorld. The Ld ASG appearing for Enforcement Directorate agreed to take instructions in this respect.

On Wednesday, June 10, 2020, all the six matters came up before Justice AK Chawla for final disposal. On submission of the Ld ASG that the provisional attachment order is limited to the extent that it speaks of, the Hon’ble High Court was pleased to dispose off the six petitions with a direction that the petitioners would be at liberty to operate their bank accounts mentioned in the impugned provisional attachment order subject to keeping a balance of the amount attached.