The Supreme Court on Monday cleared Vantara, the Ambani family-run animal rescue and welfare initiative, of all charges of illegal acquisitions and smuggling of animals, as well as money laundering.

Granting “finality” to its clean chit, the court said that “no further complaint or proceedings based upon such same set of allegations shall be entertained before any judicial statutory or administrative forum” in the future.

The bench of Justice Pankaj Mithal and Justice Prasanna B. Varale passed the orders after going through a “sealed cover” report submitted by a court-appointed special investigation team (SIT), headed by the former Supreme Court judge, Justice Jasti Chelameshwar.

After passing the directions, the bench asked the court registry to “reseal”
the report to ensure confidentiality.

In its written order, the bench said that contrary to the allegations of cruelty to animals, “Vantara facilities exceed prescribed benchmarks and the mortality figures align with the global zoological averages”.

The top court was dealing with two public interest pleas, moved by advocate C.R. Jaya Sukin and another person, that sought a probe into various alleged illegalities by Vantara, as reported in the media.

The allegations were about the illegal acquisition and smuggling of animals, their welfare and husbandry, conservation and breeding, climatic and location issues, and financial and trade improprieties including money laundering.

Vantara welcomed the SIT findings “with utmost humility and gratitude”, saying they had allowed “our work to speak for itself”.

The apex court had on August 25 formed the SIT, considering the gravity of the allegations while noting they were unsubstantiated. Apart from Justice (retd) Chelameshwar, the panel included Justice (retd) R.S. Chauhan (former Uttarakhand and Telangana chief justice), Hemant Nagrale (former Mumbai police commissioner) and Anish Gupta (IRS).

“The SIT... concluded that there is no violation of the Wildlife (Protection) Act, 1972, Recognition of Zoo Rules, 2009, CZA guidelines, Customs Act, 1962, Foreign Trade (Regulation and Development) Act, 1992, Foreign Exchange Management Act, 1999, Prevention of Money Laundering Act, 2002, Bharatiya Nyaya Sanhita, 2023, or the Convention of International Trade in Endangered Species of wild Fauna and Flora,” the apex court said.

It said that based on the SIT report, it believed that Vantara — in rescuing, conserving and breeding animals — had gone through a multi-layered and multi-jurisdictional process of statutory approvals, procedures and documentation. It had imported animals only with permits.