The Supreme Court on Tuesday (January 20, 2026) agreed to hear the issue of whether the Enforcement Directorate (ED) can file writ petitions in high courts for enforcement of its rights as a ‘juristic person’ under Article 226 of the Constitution.
A ‘juristic person’ is a non-human legal entity that is recognized by law and has the same rights and responsibilities as a human being. A bench of Justice Dipankar Dutta and Justice Satish Chandra Sharma issued notice to the ED on the appeals filed by the Kerala and Tamil Nadu governments. In these appeals, the order of the Kerala High Court has been challenged, in which the ED was confirmed to have the right to file a writ petition under Article 226.
Article 226 deals with the power of High Courts to issue certain writs. The Kerala High Court, in its order passed on September 26 last year, had upheld the order of a single judge, in which the judicial inquiry related to the ED investigation in the gold smuggling case through diplomatic channel in 2020 was stayed.
This judicial inquiry commission was formed after allegations that ED officials tried to implicate political leaders including the Chief Minister in the gold smuggling case by putting pressure on the accused.
The High Court had rejected the appeal of the Kerala government, in which the interim stay order of the single bench was challenged. The court had said that there was no merit in the appeal and the single bench did not commit any error in hearing the ED’s petition and staying the investigation.
The case arose out of the state government’s notification dated May 7, 2021, which ordered a judicial inquiry against ED officials under the Commission of Inquiry Act, 1952. The allegation was that ED officials put pressure on the accused to implicate the leaders.
The ED Deputy Director had approached the High Court raising the question whether the state government has the right to order an investigation against any central investigating agency. The single bench held that the ED had the authority and placed an interim stay on the notification on August 11, 2021, after which the state government filed an appeal against it.
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