Bengaluru, May 23 -- The Supreme Court on Thursday stayed the Enforcement Directorate's (ED) investigation into alleged financial irregularities at the Tamil Nadu State Marketing Corporation (TASMAC), the Tamil Nadu government's liquor distribution body. A bench comprising Chief Justice of India BR Gavai and Justice Augustine George Masih expressed a serious concern over what it described as ED's overreach and questioned the legality of the agency's actions. The bench commented that ED was "crossing all limits," not just in its probe against TASMAC but also in several of its other recent investigations. The bench pulled up ED for initiating coercive search and seizure operations at TASMAC's headquarters in Chennai between March 6 and 8, 2025 in the absence of a predicate offence under the Prevention of Money Laundering Act, especially when several FIRs pertaining to alleged corruption, tender manipulation, and overpricing of liquor bottles by TASMAC officials were registered by the state government itself. Additional Solicitor General SV Raju, who appeared for ED, told the Court the raids had been conducted in connection with a purported Rs.1,000 crore money laundering case that were linked to the said FIRs. Raju said the central agency has done "nothing wrong." However, the bench asked how ED had entered a space that the state was already investigating. It further asked how ED registered a criminal case against TASMAC, a corporation? " ED is crossing all limits. Where is the predicate offence. You may register against individual officials but how can you register a criminal case against a corporation?" the Court asked. The predicate offence is the underlying crime that generates money which is then laundered. The Court issued notice to ED and directed ASJ Raju to submit all of ED's contentions in an affidavit. The Supreme Court was hearing a Special Leave Petition filed by TASMAC and the state of Tamil Nadu challenging an April 23 order of the Madras high court that dismissed their pleas to declare ED's raid and search operations illegal. The high court upheld ED's powers to conduct raids. It also dismissed the TASMAC employees' allegations of a breach of their fundamental right to privacy and said that minor inconveniences suffered by them should not be permitted to come in the way of ED's investigation. Senior advocates Kapil Sibal and Mukul Rohatgi, who appeared for the state government and TASMAC, respectively....