Trusting the government and its own Special Investigation Team to complete the job of ferreting out black money stashed abroad by Indians in foreign banks, the Supreme Court on Tuesday spoke in the voice of the common man, saying “we are interested in seeing the money come back to us (nation), not in names, details.”
The oral observation by a Bench of Chief Justice of India H.L. Dattu and Justices Madan B. Lokur and A.K. Sikri came on an application by Rajya Sabha MP and senior advocate 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 Supreme Court set up the SIT led by two retired Supreme Court judges - Justices M.B. Shah and Arijit Pasayat - to return illegal money parked abroad.
Senior advocate Anil Diwan, counsel for Mr. Jethmalani, pointed to how 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,” the Attorney-General submitted.
Here, Chief Justice Dattu interjected, saying “we are interested in seeing money come back to us (nation), not in names, details”.
To this, Mr. Rohatgi submitted that the government and the SIT should be allowed to do their jobs.
“The SIT is headed by two experienced judges of the Supreme Court, they know what they have to do,” the Attorney General submitted.
The Bench expressed confidence in the SIT, with Chief Justice Dattu observing that “we are certain the SIT will do its job well”.
The court advised Mr. Jethmalani and other petitioners to approach the SIT with their suggestions in two weeks.
The SIT, represented by senior advocate Soli Sorabjee, submitted that it would file a detailed report in the Supreme Court by mid-April 2015.
In a separate note, it recommended that the government set up five courts in Mumbai to expedite hearing in over 5,000 Income Tax cases and add “tax evasion” as a schedule offence under the Prevention of Money Laundering Act, 2002.
The SIT suggested that the Foreign Exchange Management Act be amended to empower authorities to seize and confiscate property of violators which are of equivalent value within the country.
IT wants government to impose a ceiling on the maximum cash an individual or entity is allowed to possess at a particular time and tallying of import-export data with foreign governments to control trade based money laundering.
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