Court has no jurisdiction to convert high-power panel into SIT: Centre
The Supreme Court will hear on August 24 the question of maintainability of the Centre's application for recall/modification of its July 4 order on black money.
Acting on the petitions filed by the former Union Law Minister, Ram Jethmalani, and others, the court ordered the constitution of a special investigation team, headed by the retired Supreme Court judge, Justice B.P. Jeevan Reddy, and with another retired Supreme Court judge, Justice M.B. Shah, as vice-chairman. On July 15, the Centre filed its application saying the order was passed without jurisdiction.
When the matter was taken up by a three-judge Bench on Tuesday, Attorney-General G.E. Vahanvati, appearing for the Centre, said that though initially the application was for recall/modification of the order, a fresh one was filed seeking deletion of paragraphs 49 and 50, which relate only to the constitution of the SIT.
‘Not maintainable'
Senior counsel Anil Divan, appearing for the petitioners, argued that the application for review of the July 4 order was not maintainable. Further, the government did not comply with its various directions.
Senior counsel Rajeev Dhavan said the court should first decide on the question of maintainability.
Mr. Vahanvati said he would satisfy the court that the application was maintainable. At this, Justice Altamas Kabir said: “Whether the application is maintainable or not will be taken up first on August 24.”
Opposing the constitution of the SIT, the Centre said: “The court would have no power to appoint two retired judges on the high-level committee (HCL), which has been constituted in exercise of the powers of the policy decision taken on the subject by the government, nor would this court have the jurisdiction or authority to convert the HLC into a SIT and further direct it to report to this court alone. The inclusion of retired judges in such a SIT would be contrary to the conferment of the powers to investigate, which can be done only in accordance with statutory provisions.”
Justices Cyriac Joseph and S.S. Nijjar are the other judges on the Bench.
Keywords: black money, corruption, Ram Jethmalani, special investigation team
The currupted politicians should be hanged till death provided that before their death the money should come back to my country as a national property.So that the common man will get all the facility for survive and to increase our GDP to compete with the world economy.>It is the time to think about the nation and politicians who have taken the responsibility to sell our country to the outsiders for vote bank . My country is sufferring due to the ruling government. So I request every Indians to make support to Anna Hazare for a strong LOKPAL BILL.
We are not impressed with this approach. Call it judicial activism or by any other name. Fact is large sums of money have been stacked in banks outside India.How did the Govt. keep quite. Incidentally how did ED begin investigations into Hasan Ali case evsen though amount invoved may beannual budget of someof our state govts. We want positive and quick action and not verbal missiles against action being taken
Black money means legally earned but not disclosed to authorities. This has to be unearthed by the Tax/ED authorities who will recover the tax and impose fine/penalty and the remaining money becomes legal. The money said to be in foreign banks may be not only black money but also money looted by illegal means. It has to be deeply investigated,prosecuted and confiscated. Investigation/prosecution of a crime or offence is the duty and authority of the executive only. The Judiciary can direct the executive to investigate a matter coming to its notice or a further investigation on a matter already investigated but itself can not assume the role of an investigator. Even assuming the role of supervising an investigation by the Judiciary will cause prejudice during trial. Judicial activism or an biased atmosphere of hype created by the unconstitutional media trials should not be allowed to result in Judicial over reach and decrying the constitutional authority of the executive.
Why is the Congress afraid of SIT? It has the CBI, ED, and other agencies working as its stooges. It can dig out details of the members of the SIT and can easily 'manage' them as it has been doing all these years. Is it because it fears that the names of its members will be out in the open if there is an independent inquiry? It appears to be so; as some of the names in a list circulating on the Internet shows. By the way, Wikileaks has apparently published this list. Why is the Indian media shying of reproducing it?
Name Amount (INR Cr)
Ramdev pasvan 5500
Neara Radiya 289990
Rajeev Gandhi 198000
M. K. Stalin 10500
A Raja 7800
Rendezvous
Sports World 29800
H. D. Kumaraswamy 14500
Lalu Prasad Yadav 29800
Jyotiraditya
M Scindia 9000
Kalanidhi maran 15000
Karunanidhi 35000
Sarath Pawar 28000
Suresh kalmadi 5900
Chithambaram 32000
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