Date:12/09/2008 URL: http://www.thehindu.com/2008/09/12/stories/2008091253960400.htm

Tamil Nadu - Chennai

High Court directive to Enforcement Directorate

Staff Reporter

CHENNAI: The Madras High Court has directed Enforcement Directorate to pay within a month with interest to the widow of a person from whom Rs.8.50 lakh was seized in 1993.

A Bench comprising Justices S.J. Mukhopadhaya and V. Dhanapalan gave this direction while disposing of an appeal by the Enforcement Directorate (ED) against a single judge order. Finding no ground to interfere with the order passed by the single judge, the bench said, it was the admitted amount to which Chinthamani was entitled to by way of refund.

It also said that if it failed to pay the accrued interest within the stipulated period, it would have to pay penal interest of 8 per cent per annum from the date of the single judge’s order till the amount was paid.

The ED had seized the amount under the provisions of the Foreign Exchange Regulation Act, 1973.