HC denies Natwar access to ED files

The court, however, noted that a move either by the legislature or the courts to oblige the accused persons with “full disclosure would be very welcome in this country”. “There is no doubt that disclosure of all the materials which goes to establish the innocence of an accused is the sine qua non (norm) of a fair trial. Unfortunately, the law as it stands today does not permit this court to give a ruling in favour of the petitioners (Singhs),” the Bench said.

Leaning heavily on Supreme Court’s ruling that the prosecution need not reveal the entire evidence collected even in cases involving preventive detention, the court said: “When the SC has taken such a stand even in matters affecting personal liberty, the same cannot be deviated from in the present case, which is merely an adjudicating proceeding and not even a full-fledged criminal trial.”

The court’s observations were reflective of detailed submissions by Additional Solicitor General (ASG) P P Malhotra that ED proceedings cannot be compared with a criminal trial as “no criminality is attached to it…”.

Contending that the Singhs were not entitled to documents irrelevant to the specific allegations against them, the ASG submitted that the entire on-going probe would be put to jeopardy if the duo stumbled on documents, which may deal with “other persons” currently under the ED scanner.

Reliable sources in the ED said that over 800 pages of documents have already been supplied to Natwar Singh along with the showcause notice.

On the other hand, Arvind Nigam, counsel for Natwar Singh, had countered that denial of documents by the ED was violative of the fundamental rights of the Singhs for a fair trial, especially when the Justice R S Pathak Inquiry Committee report on the scam had exonerated them of any financial or other misdeamnours.