A day after the Supreme Court rapped the Centre for
“providing a protective umbrella to foreign bank account holders,” the
Union government on Wednesday submitted, in a sealed cover, a list of
627 Indians holding black money abroad. The Centre also gave a status
report on the investigations against such account holders.
A
Bench comprising Chief Justice H.L. Dattu and Justices Ranjana Desai
and Madan B. Lokur made it clear to Attorney-General Mukul Rohatgi that
it did not intend to open the envelopes, and asked the Registry to send
them to the Special Investigation Team. It directed that the envelopes
be opened only by the SIT chairman, Justice M.B. Shah, and
vice-chairman, Justice Arijit Pasayat, to conduct a further
investigation.
The Bench empowered the SIT to evolve
its own procedure after hearing the Centre’s stand on India’s tax
treaties and the submissions of petitioner, Ram Jethmalani. The Bench
asked the SIT to submit a status report on its investigation by November
30 and posted the matter for further hearing on December 3.
Earlier,
Mr. Rohatgi submitted that the first list contained details of
correspondence, treaties and agreements that India had signed with
France and other nations where the illegal money was said to be stashed.
He said the second list contained all the 627 names and the third gave
the status report on the probe in these cases. Mr. Rohatgi said more
than half the people on the list of 627 were Indian nationals, while the
rest were NRIs. He said most of them had accounts with the HSBC Bank,
Geneva.
Interview Team
Mahendra Educational pvt. ltd.
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