A day after the Supreme Court rapped the Centre for “providing a protective umbrella to foreign bank account holders,” the Union government on Wednesday submitted, in a sealed cover, a list of 627 Indians holding black money abroad. The Centre also gave a status report on the investigations against such account holders.
A Bench comprising Chief Justice H.L. Dattu and Justices Ranjana Desai and Madan B. Lokur made it clear to Attorney-General Mukul Rohatgi that it did not intend to open the envelopes, and asked the Registry to send them to the Special Investigation Team. It directed that the envelopes be opened only by the SIT chairman, Justice M.B. Shah, and vice-chairman, Justice Arijit Pasayat, to conduct a further investigation.
The Bench empowered the SIT to evolve its own procedure after hearing the Centre’s stand on India’s tax treaties and the submissions of petitioner, Ram Jethmalani. The Bench asked the SIT to submit a status report on its investigation by November 30 and posted the matter for further hearing on December 3.
Earlier, Mr. Rohatgi submitted that the first list contained details of correspondence, treaties and agreements that India had signed with France and other nations where the illegal money was said to be stashed. He said the second list contained all the 627 names and the third gave the status report on the probe in these cases. Mr. Rohatgi said more than half the people on the list of 627 were Indian nationals, while the rest were NRIs. He said most of them had accounts with the HSBC Bank, Geneva.
