New Dehli : The Supreme Court on Friday dismissed a plea by the Enforcement Directorate (ED) against the bail granted to former Karnataka minister D K Shivakumar by the Delhi High Court in a money laundering case.

The top court rejected a contention by Solicitor General Tushar Mehta that Rs 142 crore of laundered money was found.

The court took a strong view on Section 45 provisions of the Prevention of Money Laundering Act (PMLA) being resurrected, which was contented by senior advocates A M Singhvi and Mukul Rohatgi, appearing for Shivakumar. “This is not the way you treat the citizens,” a Supreme Court bench, which included Justices R F Nariman and S Ravindra Bhat, said after being told that the investigating agency “resurrected” stringent Section 45 that had been quashed in 2017 for being violative of the right to liberty.

Section 45 stated that no accused can be granted bail unless prosecutor gets an opportunity to oppose and if the prosecutor choses to oppose it, the court has to be convinced that he was not guilty of the crime. In 2017, a Supreme Court bench led by Justice Nariman struck down Section 45 of the PMLA, saying it was a drastic provision.

Justice Nariman told Solicitor General Mehta to tell the government to read the judgement passed on Thursday in the Sabarimala case. “Our judgement is not something to be played upon,” he said.

On Thursday, Justice Nariman with Justice D Y Chandrachud had dissented to majority view of referring to a larger bench of seven-judge bench the issue of entry of women to Sabarimala temple, allowed on September 28, 2018, judgement, along with similar issues of entry of Muslim women to mosque and Parsi women married to different faith to the fire temple and genital mutilation practice among Dawoodi Bohara community.

Justice Nariman had then said the Supreme Court judgement was final and binding all and there was no option on compliance.

Meanwhile, the court issued notice to Income Tax authorities on a plea by Shivakumar against the Karnataka High Court order that dismissed his plea for quashing of proceedings.