M A I N   N E W S

black money
SC rejects Centre’s plea against SIT
R Sedhuraman
Legal Correspondent

New Delhi, March 26
The Supreme Court today rejected the Centre’s plea against the appointment of a 13-member special investigation team (SIT) headed by former SC judges - BP Jeevan Reddy and MB Shah - in an effort to bring back black money, estimated at USD 1.4 trillion (Rs 84 lakh crore), stashed in Swiss and other foreign banks.

The apex court’s July 4, 2011 order appointing the SIT was necessary as successive governments since the country’s Independence had failed to take effective steps to unearth such funds and make use of them for economic development and improving people’s lives, a three-member Bench headed by Justice HL Dattu remarked.

If the government had dealt with the problem seriously, the country would have developed to a greater extent and the economy would have been doing much better and people paying income tax far less than the present maximum of 30 per cent plus surcharge, the Bench said. Justices Ranjana Desai and Madan Lokur were the other members on the Bench.

The SC had a constitutional obligation to intervene in such matters, particularly when concerned people approached it with PILs, contending that the “economy of this country is being destroyed and pleading for initiation of appropriate steps to bring back the black money,” the Bench clarified.

The apex court had delivered the 2011 verdict on a batch of PILs filed by senior advocate Ram Jethmalani and others. Justices Reddy and Shah were appointed as Chairman and Vice Chairman of the SIT.

Appointment of the SIT “has the effect of completely eliminating the role of the Executive which itself is answerable to Parliament”, the government had contended.

The Bench, however, said if the government had done its job there would have been no occasion for judicial intervention. Now, the SC would find out “some other method” to ensure that all black money was accounted for and put to good use.