Supreme Court gets tough with government on black money

In a blow to Centre, the Supreme Court on Wednesday declined to accept government's plea to recall its earlier order to set up a Special Investigation Team (SIT) to probe all cases of black money.

"This court wants the black money stashed in foreign bank should be accounted...What is the difficulty in complying with the order," a bench headed by H L Dattu said while dismissing the central government's application to recall its July 4, 2011 order to set up the independent probe committee.

"Let us see the SIT will do things which this country is dreaming of," the bench also comprising justices Ranjana Prakash Desai and Madan B Lokur, observed.

The bench also rejected solicitor general Mohan Parasaran's argument that a mechanism was already in place to deal with the issue of black money.

Noting that the Centre was running away from the SIT-monitored probe, the court said, "Since 1947, nobody thought for 65 years to bring back black money stashed in foreign banks to the country. At least in 2011 a citizen (referring to petitioner noted jurist Ram Jethmalani) came and informed about it as the economy of the country is destroyed."

Saying that the government had failed in its role for the past 65 years, the bench said, "This court in the economic interests of the country thinks that black money lying in different countries should be brought back and the court feels that you have failed in your duty in doing so and so it gave an order for the appointment of the committee headed by former judges of this court."

Observing that "this court took the cudgels and kept the matter pending... If the money would have been brought back, the economy of the country would have gone up. Per capita income would have gone up. The country need not pay tax. We need not pay 30 per cent of our tax." The bench appreciated the efforts made by senior advocate Ram Jethmalani for bringing this issue to court.

Jethmalani had filed the plea seeking court's indulgence into the matter. Admiting his plea, the bench had set up SIT headed by two retired Supreme Court judges to find out the mechanism to bring back the black money abroad.

Earlier, the bench had set up the panel consisting of retired Supreme Court judges – Justice B P Jeevan Reddy and M B Shah. The court had also ordered inclusion of chiefs of Research and Analysis Wing and Intelligence Bureau.