New Delhi, July 15
The government today filed a petition in the Supreme Court seeking recall of the court’s July 4 order for setting up a 13-member Special Investigation Team to probe all aspects of the black money issue as part of efforts to bring back massive amounts illegally stashed in secret bank accounts overseas.

A Bench comprising Justices B Sudershan Reddy (now retired) and SS Nijjar had passed the order specifying that former apex court judges BP Jeevan Reddy and MB Shah would be the chairman and vice-chairman of the SIT that would include the chiefs of the CBI, Intelligence Bureau, Enforcement Directorate, Revenue Intelligence and the Research and Analysis Wing (RAW) that deals with external intelligence.

The government’s review petition has taken specific exception to the inclusion of the RAW chief as operations of the wing were not generally disclosed. The petition also maintained that handing over the investigations to persons and agencies that did not have the mandate under law had disturbed the delineation of powers ensured under the Constitution.

In fact, some legal experts had already questioned the wisdom of appointing former Supreme Court judges to head the investigations and prepare the chargesheet, as this would result in a peculiar problem -- the trial court would have to sit in judgment over a chargesheet vetted by former apex court judges.

The SC Bench had slammed the government for conducting the investigations “at a laggardly pace” even in case of “named individuals,” including Pune-based stud farm owner Hasan Ali Khan, against whom the Income Tax Department had issued a demand notice for payment of Rs 70,000 crore in tax arrears and penalty.

The Bench had passed the order on a bunch of PILs seeking steps to bring back black money to the tune of over $1 trillion taken out of the country illegally by individuals and entities to evade tax.

Among the petitioners are former law minister Ram Jethmalani and Punjab Police former chiefs KPS Gill and Julio F Riberio.

Then Solicitor General Gopal Subramanium had argued for the government in the case. He had put in his papers on July 9 after feeling insulted by his replacement in the 2G case for a specific hearing. His resignation was accepted yesterday.

In the review plea, the government has also maintained that the high-power committee set up with the Revenue Secretary as its head was sufficient to conduct investigations as it had the chiefs of all relevant agencies as its members. The apex court had directed the government to convert this committee into a SIT, with the addition of the RAW chief and the two former judges.