In a relief for actor Shilpa Shetty and her businessman husband Raj Kundra, the Directorate of Enforcement told the Bombay High Court on Thursday that it would not act upon the eviction notices issued to the couple till their application against the attachment order is heard and decided by an appellate tribunal.
ED issued notices to the couple on September 27 directing them to vacate their house in Juhu and a farmhouse in Pune in connection with a money-laundering case. The notices were issued pursuant to an attachment order passed by the agency against the couple's properties.
The couple challenged this before the HC terming it as arbitrary and illegal.
The court, on Wednesday, asked ED the urgency in issuing eviction notices after attachment order was passed when the couple has a legal remedy to appeal against the order.
On Thursday, the ED told a bench of Justices Revati Mohite-Dere and Prithviraj Chavan that the eviction notices shall not be acted upon till the petitioners file their appeal against the attachment order and the same is decided by the tribunal.
Accepting the statement, the court disposes of couple’s plea and said that in the event of an adverse order by the tribunal, the notices shall not be brought into effect for a period of two weeks thereafter.
Couple’s advocate, Prashant Patil submitted that Shetty and Kundra received the eviction notices only on October 3. He sought quashing of the same stating that they were illegal and arbitrary.
The petitions contended that there is urgency to vacate their premises. “The petitioners are also seeking relief on humanitarian grounds as the premise in question is their residential premise in which they have been staying with their family of six members for almost two decades,” the petition said.
The ED, in 2018, filed a complaint against Amit Bhardwaj and others for alleged bitcoin fraud and money laundering. Neither Shetty nor Kundra has been named as accused in the case. The ED had summoned Kundra multiple times during its investigation, and he appeared as required, the plea states.
They received a notice of an order in April 2024 from the ED provisionally attaching their assets, including the Juhu residence purchased by Kundra’s father in 2009. They responded to the notice.
The plea claims that, despite their response, the adjudicating authority confirmed the provisional attachment order on September 18, 2024, in violation of the law. “
