Black money in foreign banks amounts to plunder of nation: Supreme Court

Black money stashed away in foreign banks is not just a case of tax evasion, it is “mind- boggling crime” amounting to “theft and plunder of national wealth’’, the Supreme Court said on Wednesday.

In a frank message to the Union government, the court wanted it to realise the gravity of the issue. “We are talking about mind-boggling crime. We are not on the niceties of various treaties,’’ a bench of justices B Sudershan Reddy and SS Nijjar told solicitor-general Gopal Subramanium.

Earlier, the government had contended that money in foreign banks was a case of tax evasion and it cannot make public the names of Indian account holders.

“The authorities have to go on the basis of mutual agreement with various countries where the money is stashed,’’ Subramium said.

 “This is the problem worrying us. It is not only about tax evasion and has something more,’’ the bench said after it was pointed out that the source of the money could be narcotics, terror fund or arms dealing. 

The court was hearing a petition filed by noted criminal lawyer Ram Jethmalani and some retired bureaucrats and police officers.