Rs 18,000 crore returned to banks from Mallya, Nirav Modi, Choksi, SC told

He also said orders against coercive action given by various courts had held up as much as Rs 67,000 crore from being recovered.

The bench, also comprising Justices Dinesh Maheshwari and C T Ravikumar, is hearing a clutch of petitions challenging the constitutional validity of the scope of powers available to the ED under the PMLA for search, seizure, investigation, and attachment of proceeds of crime.

Citing statistics, Mehta said that only a “very small number of cases are being taken up for investigation” in India as compared to countries like the United Kingdom, the United States, China, Austria, Hongkong, Belgium and Russia.

Mehta contended that PMLA has inbuilt provisions to ensure that it is in keeping with constitutional guidelines.

“The validity of the PMLA, 2002 shall have to be judged from the antecedent events which took place globally,” he said, adding that the court, while deciding on constitutionality, would have to apply a

different threshold if international ramifications were to be kept in mind.