Trusting the government and its own Special Investigation Team to complete the job of unearthing black money Indians have stashed away in foreign banks, the Supreme Court on Tuesday spoke in the voice of the common man: “We are interested in seeing the money come back to us [nation], not in names, details.”
A Bench of Chief Justice H.L. Dattu and Justices Madan B. Lokur and A.K. Sikri made the oral observation on an application by Rajya Sabha member and senior lawyer Ram Jethmalani that not a “single rupee has come out in the past six months” and investigation into black money has been reduced to “a raid here, an attachment there and that’s all.”
It was on Mr. Jethmalani’s petition in 2009 that the court set up the SIT, led by two retired Supreme Court judges — Justices M.B. Shah and Arijit Pasayat — to retrieve the money.
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Senior advocate Anil Diwan, counsel for Mr. Jethmalani, said the BJP manifesto had promised to take steps on a “priority basis to minimise the scope of corruption by minimising the hoarding of black money.”
But Attorney-General Mukul Rohatgi strongly objected to the line of argument. “It is completely wrong in saying that not a penny has come up. Some of them [627 Indian account-holders] have paid penalties. Besides, time was given to us till March 31, 2015, to complete prosecution of black money holders abroad under the Income Tax Act,” Mr. Rohatgi countered.
“Everything the government has is with the Supreme Court’s SIT. We have shared every single document, name, account details with them. Nothing has been hidden from them.”
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Chief Justice Dattu interjected, saying: “We are interested in seeing the money come back to us [nation], not in names, details.”
Mr. Rohatgi submitted that the government and the SIT should be allowed to do their job. Chief Justice Dattu said, “We are certain the SIT will do its job well.”
Jethmalani angry
Senior lawyer Ram Jethmalani expressed his displeasure in the Supreme Court on Tuesday at the “silence” of the government to a draft law prepared by him to check the flow of black money out of the country. Mr. Jethmalani told a Bench led by Chief Justice of India H.L. Dattu that he drafted the legislation on the advice of the Special Investigation Team.
“I sent it to the SIT and to the Prime Minister. It is a matter of regret that I have not heard one word from the Prime Minister,” Mr. Jethmalani said. The court did not react to his comments.