New Delhi : The government today submitted the entire list of black money account holders to the Supreme Court. The documents include 627 names and status report of their investigation in these cases.
According to TV reports, Attorney General Mukul Rohatgi submitted three sets of documents to the apex court, which include all the account holders’ names. Document one contains names of black money account holders, document two contains details of overseas accounts and document three includes status of investigation in these cases, reported Times Now.
Finance Minister Arun Jaitley on Tuesday had said it will be up to the judges to decide whether to make the names public. “There is nobody that the government wants to protect,” he said.
The names as sought by the Supreme Court had already been given to the Special Investigation Team (SIT) appointed by the government at the behest of the apex court. The primary purpose of this exercise is to ascertain who among the individuals and the entities named hold such accounts in contravention of Indian laws and what kind of proceedings can be initiated to prosecute them and get back any ill-gotten money.
The government had told that court Monday that it could not disclose the names to the apex court even in the proceedings under the constitution’s article 32 under which the apex court could be moved for upholding fundamental rights.
Not two or three names, we want entire list, SC tells Modi govt
Even as the entire list of black money account holders is due to be submitted to the court today it is unclear if the Supreme Court will make it public. The court on Tuesday directed the government to reveal the account holders’ names by Wednesday, saying government doesn’t need to do anything other than pass on the information for the apex court to pass orders for further probe. There is a Supreme Court appointed Special Investigation Team (SIT) probing into black money stashed away in foreign accounts.
A bench of Chief Justice H.L. Dattu, Justice Ranjana Prakash Desai and Justice Madan B. Lokur told Attorney General Mukul Rohatgi that the government need not do anything but just disclose the names to the court and it will decide whether the matter should be investigated by the income tax authorities or by the Central Bureau of Investigation.
As Rohatgi said that the veracity of the disclosed accounts is being investigated by the income tax authorities, Chief Justice Dattu said: “Why do you want to have the trouble of investigating. You give it to us. We will direct the CBI or the income tax authorities to undertake investigation in a month’s time.”
“We don’t want the money that belongs to this country to go outside,” he added.
“I have the list of 500 names, some of them are very sketchy,” Rohtagi told the court trying to hold his ground.
“First give us the names, we will get them investigated. Not just one, two or three (names), give us in a sealed cover what you have got from French, German and Swiss governments,” the court told Rohatgi, wondering why the government was having “protective umbrella” for the account holders. (Agencies)
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