New Delhi: The Supreme Court on Monday asked the Centre, the Central bank and three other organisations to explain what they are doing to get black money stashed abroad.
A bench comprising Chief Justice K G Balakrishnan and Justice P Sathasivam gave three weeks' time to the respondents to reply to a public interest litigation, which wants the government to list steps taken to bring back the estimated Rs 70 lakh crore lying in foreign banks.
The petition has been filed by famous lawyer Ram Jethmalani, retired IPS officer K P S Gill, former Lok Sabha Secretary General Subhash Kashyap, and others.
Senior lawyer Anil Diwan, appearing for the petitioners, also contended that the Government was seeking more time as they have not done enough to bring back black money lying in UBS Bank, Switzerland, the world's largest financial management company.
Solicitor General Gopal Subramaniam, appearing for the respondents, however, pleaded for more time in lieu of some subsequent development and asserted before the court that Government had taken all possible steps to bring back the black money stashed away by corrupt politicians, bureaucrats and other unscrupulous elements in the country.
The petitioners have also alleged that this money may have been used for terrorist and other anti-national activities. The Government, in its earlier affidavit, had named businessman Hasan Ali Khan from whom the Income Tax Department had demanded Rs 40,000 crore as dues of income tax. According to the government, he has stashed away millions of dollars of black money in UBS, Singapore through hawala.
The petitioners wanted to know the reason behind the failure of the Indian government to get names of Indians having secret bank accounts in UBS, Switzerland since the government had earlier promised to file an affidavit within 48 hours and UBS had agreed to reveal the names of Americans who have secret bank accounts in UBS. UBS has also paid 80 million dollar to the US as penalty.
The Supreme Court also issued notices to the Director Of Enforcement, Board Of Direct Taxes and the Securities Exchange Board of India.
Comments
0 comment