Big bench on black money a waiting game

The serious concern expressed by noted constitutional expert and lawmaker Ram Jethmalani that despite the Supreme Court’s direction on July 4 last year to reveal the names of those individuals who have dubious bank accounts in Liechtenstein, Germany, the government has deprived him and other petitioners of the vital information, is caused due to the delay in setting up a larger bench to decide whether the government could seek review of the significant ruling.

Within two months of the ruling stressing the need for action against Indians who have stashed unaccounted money in foreign banks, a two-judge bench passed a fractured verdict in the government’s lawsuit, seeking review of the verdict that had warned that a ‘soft state’ facilitates corruption and illegal transactions that could be used for anti-national activities.

But the delay in setting up an appropriate bench to decide the fate of the July 4 judgment that had been penned by Justice B Sudershan Reddy, who has retired since then, has been used by the government to arm itself with certain decisions to rebut any allegation about its complicity in the black money scandal.

To a query by MP, D Raja, the government has told Parliament that it has commissioned a study to estimate the quantum of unaccounted income or wealth inside and outside the country and its ramifications on national security. A report to this effect could be submitted by September next.

However, 88-year old Jethmalani has shared some information with the government, saying the World Bank estimates the cross-border flow of money from criminal activities including corruption and tax evasion to be around USD1.5 trillion annually.

Around USD40 billion of this flow accounts for bribes paid to public officials in developing countries. Out of this, the World Bank estimates that USD5 billion, in stolen assets, have been repatriated over the past 15 years.

That leaves a wide gap between the outflow from developing countries and its subsequent repatriation, he said, and offered a “few corroborative facts”. These facts, Jethmalani says are that investigations now reveal that the money stolen from India by corrupt persons “is of the order of USD1500 billion’’. Much of this money belongs to India. If this amount is brought back to the country, it could offer a tax-free Budget “for the next 30 years”.

In its judgment, the top court has observed that the volume of alleged income-taxes owed to the country and the volume of monies - USD8.04 billion, by some accounts, and some other accounts in excess of Rs70,000 crore - are said to have been routed through various bank accounts of Hassan Ali Khan and Tapurias.

In fact, Pune’s stud farm owner Hassan Ali and Tapurias were the sacred cows for the investigating agencies until the top court started asking them about the ‘big fish’ , the same term that had been used in the 2g scam when the agencies hesitated in touching telecom minister A Raja and some major players.

At a time when the political executive and judiciary could be seen raking up the arguments about ‘overreach’, its incumbent upon the administrators to ensure that the judicial directions are complied with in letter and spirit, and people are not denuded of the right to life, liberty and information as well.