High Court upholds ED’s attachment of Karvy Stock Broking’s properties

Hyderabad: The Telangana High Court on Tuesday upheld the Enforcement Directorate provisionally attaching the properties of the Karvy Stock Broking Ltd group companies, and its approval by the ED’s Adjudicating Authority (ED-AA).

A bench of Chief Justice Alok Aradhe and Justice Anil Kumar Jukanti set aside the single judge orders which had quashed the ED-AA’s orders confirming the attachment. The single judge had ruled on the technical ground that the ED-AA which consisted of a single member, who was not a judicial member, cannot pass an order of attachment.

On the ED’s appeal, the bench said that it was a settled rule that powers under Section 6 of the Prevention of Money Laundering Act can be exercised by an adjudicating authority comprising a single member.