The Supreme Court on Tuesday asked the parties, who sought a direction to the government to bring back black money stashed abroad, to give their complaints and suggestions to the special investigating team (SIT) set up by it to probe the issue.
The bench headed by Chief Justice H L Dattu, while asking SIT to report to it in a sealed cover the action taken by it, observed that “it is interested in black money coming back to the country and not in disclosure of names”.
The order was passed after former Union law minister Ram Jethmalani and his counsel Anil Divan argued that “not a single rupee has come to this country… Only some search and attachment here and there have been conducted”.
Expressing his “total disappointment” with the events and asserted that unless a law is made in this connection nothing would happen, Jethmalani told the court that he had drafted a legislation and the ordinance on the issue and sent it to Prime Minister Narendra Modi, who just passed it on to finance minister Arun Jaitley. “But nothing has been heard from anyone; at least say something or I will go to the people,” he said.
Citing three important documents available in public domain — article written by National Security Advisor Ajit Doval, BJP’s Task Force report and its manifesto on the steps to be taken to bring back illegal money, Divan said that the government should enact suitable legislation vesting all unauthorised accounts held by Indians in foreign tax havens in the Central Government.
Besides, the government should suo moto register an omnibus criminal case against the suspected unidentified persons who have been indulging in criminal activities and unauthorisedly transferring money to tax havens abroad, Jethmalani in his fresh application stated, adding that this would empower the concerned authorities to summon people for questioning, interrogate suspected persons, seize incriminating documents, conduct raids, make arrests examine documents etc.
“Every electoral candidate should file an affidavit before the elections that he does not hold illegal money abroad. The same should be applied to senior appointees in the government like, RBI governor, Sebi chairman, CBI director, cabinet secretary, IB director, RAW chief, CVC etc. By an act of Parliament, persons who have accumulated funds abroad should be barred from holding any public office and getting loans from bank etc as a form of punishment,” the application filed through counsel Balaji Srinivasan stated.
