Supreme Court of India(SCI)Backs Ajit Doval's plan for recovering Rs 70,000 crore in black money Tuesday Jan 20,2015

The Supreme Court of India(SCI)on Tuesday Jan 20,2015 decided to force the Centre’s hand by asking the Special Investigation Team “to consider” registration of “omnibus” criminal cases to expedite prosecutions and permit authorities to seek help from the police in foreign countries. 

 

National Security Advisor Ajit Doval has a prescription for getting black money back to the country and it is being taken rather seriously by the highest court in the land.

Till now, the authorities have had little success in recovering the Rs 70,000 crore estimated to be stashed away in foreign tax havens

Taking note of Modi government’s sluggish efforts to bring back black money, the Supreme Court on Tuesday decided to force the Centre’s hand by asking the Special Investigation Team “to consider” registration of “omnibus” criminal cases to expedite prosecutions and permit authorities to seek help from the police in foreign countries.

Every election candidate may also be asked to file an affidavit while filing nomination that he does not hold illegal money abroad. 

These were part of recommendations in an article authored in 2011 by Ajit Doval – “India’s Plundered Money Abroad- Can we get it back ?” — which was submitted to the court by lawyer Ram Jethmalani, the petitioner in the public interest litigation seeking to bring back illegal money. 

But in a major U-turn after repeatedly rapping the Modi government during earlier hearings for not revealing names of black money holders, a bench headed by Chief Justice H L Dattu said it was more interested in bringing back the money and not in the disclosure of names. 

Submitting the Ajit Doval article, Jethmalani’s lawyer Anil Divan said, “Despite big promises by the government, nothing has moved. Not a single paise has come from abroad. There are some attachments here, a raid there, scattered prosecutions by Income Tax departments in various states which will also yield no result.” 

Anil Divan also said the “list of 627 submitted by the government is nothing and only a tip of the iceberg while the International Consortium of Investigative Journalists had said there were nearly 1,200 to 1,700 Indians who have stashed money abroad”. 

CJI Dattu then told Divan: “Do not worry. Place all recommendations before the SIT. We will request the SIT (headed by justices M B Shah and Arijit Pasayat as its Chairman and Vice-Chairman respectively) to consider them in accordance with law. What we are supposed to do, we have entrusted them. They will do their job. They were judges of the Supreme Court. They know their job”

Anil Doval had recommended that government should on its own register criminal cases against the suspected unidentified persons “who have been indulging in criminal activities and unauthorisedly transferring money to tax havens abroad” on the lines of investigation in 2G and coal scam cases. 

”This would empower the concerned authorities to summon people for questioning, interrogate suspected persons, seize incriminating documents, conduct raids, make arrests examine documents etc. 

"Further, the concerned authorities would be empowered to get assistance of foreign police and investigating agencies for gathering requisite evidence and information. 

"Most importantly, this will empower the government to approach different banks abroad as also the concerned governments, for information regarding the money trail as they pertain to criminal cases”