Government wants black money SIT order reviewed

The Union government on Friday said it would seek a review of the Supreme Court ruling on handing over the investigation into the black money case to a high-powered panel comprising two its former judges.

Coincidentally, the author of the judgment Justice B Sudershan Reddy retired on Friday.

On Monday last, the top court had castigated the Union government for ignoring its constitutional obligations of taking speedy action against those who have been accused of stashing black money in foreign banks.

Expressing little faith in the delayed steps taken by the government, like constituting a 10-member panel of bureaucrats to probe the allegations, the SC said a former judge BP Jeevan Reedy would chair the special investigating team (SIT) and another retired judge MB Shah will be the deputy chairperson.

It said the government’s panel would work under them and hand over all the material available with it to the SIT. This seems to be the core issue on which the government would like to challenge the ruling.

It may also argue that the court had overreached by entering into an alien area like setting up an SIT.

However, the top court in the past had set up an SIT in Gujarat riots cases.

It is learnt that the government’s immediate concern is to get the operation of this judgment stayed.