Centre to Reveal All the Names Involved In Black Money Holding to Supreme Court on Wednesday

Oct 29, 2014 Tushita News 0

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Slamming the Centre for showing reluctance in the matter and rejecting its stand, the apex court directed the Centre to reveal the names of other black money holders, who have been stacking their money in bank accounts abroad, by Wednesday. The Supreme Court has asked the government to submit the names in a sealed envelope and criticised it for showinghesitancyon the issue.

In strong terms, the court criticised the government for being onthe lookout for modification of the order that it gave earlier regarding disclosing the rest of names involved in the case too, saying that this was accepted by the then UPA government.

Chief Justice H L Dattu, who was ostensibly annoyed, said,“Why are you trying to protectpeople having bank accounts in foreign countries. Why are you providing a protective umbrella for all these people.

“The order was passed in open court in the presence of Solicitor General and the new regime can’t ask modification of order. We cannot touch our order and we won’t change even a word of it.”

The ardent plea made by Attorney General Mukul Rohatgi, that names can be disclosed only after investigation is carried out on the wrongfulness of bank accounts, was downright declined by the Bench headed by Justice Dattu.

The Bench asked the government to just reveal all the names and provide all the information to the court, and wait for its directions. It was up to the court to instruct probe to be carried out by SIT or any other agencies including CBI.

Towards the conclusion of the 30-minute hearing, the Attorney General claimed that the Centre hadreceived 500 names of account holders from various countries including Germany.

Justice Dattu told the government not to start any kind of investigationby itself, and also added that if the probe is carried out by the government, it might never complete in his lifetime.

The benchcomprising justices Ranjana Prakash Desai and Madan B Lokur, strongly notified the government, “You do not do anything. Just pass information of account holders to us and we will pass order for further probe.”

“We can’t leave the issue of bringing back black money to government. It will never happen during our time,” it said and added, “Why are you providing protective umbrella to foreign bank account holders?”

The bench overlooked the arguments of the Attorney General that exposing the names of the account holders will be a violation of their right to privacy, especially for those who holdgenuine and legally approved accounts, adding that the names can be disclosed only after a clear case of tax evasion is figured out.

“You do not have to take interest in people (having foreign bank accounts). SIT will take care of it,” the bench said setting a deadline for tomorrow to unveil all the names.

The Supreme Court instructed the government not to submit“one, two, or three names of account holders but the entire list supplied to it by the foreign countries”.

Finance Minister’s reaction:

Stressing that no one will be sheltered, ArunJaitley, the Union Finance Minister said that the government will provide the list of foreign account holders who are being suspected of holding black moneySupreme Courton Wednesday.

He said the list will be handed to the Supreme Court in a sealed envelope, as per the courts’ instructions. However, he didn’t make it clear if the Centre was fine with the idea of making the list public.

Mr. Jaitley informed the mediain Delhi,“The government shall place the list before the Court because the government has already given (the list) to the Court-constituted Special Investigating Team (on June 27). The government is keen that by whatever procedure in accordance with law we must get to the root of the matter.

“…The government has no difficulty in placing the entire list and the same will be placed before the court tomorrow.”

He also added the Centre is eager to reprimand all those who have been holding illegitimate foreign accounts, and as promised by it before coming into power, the government will leave no stone unturned to bring back the black money.

“The truth about these names and also these accounts must come out so that penal action can be taken against the people and the money lying there can be brought back to India.

“The government has no difficulty whatsoever with any agency investigating this matter because there is nobody the government wants to protect in this case so that those whose names have come must really be investigated and punished according to law,” said the Finance Minister.

Earlier, the BJP government was under criticism from Kejriwal and Congress regarding hiding other big names that are present in the list of those involved in black money holding case.

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• black money, black money holder, foreign account holders, Foreign Bank Accounts, Supreme Court, tax evasion

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