Supreme Court raps Centre on black money
Centre had committed contempt of court by not working on its directives
By : DC Correspondent
Update: 2014-04-23 05:55 GMT
New Delhi: The Supreme Court on Tuesday came down upon the Centre for its failure to implement its directives given three years ago in order to bring back black money of Indians stashed in overseas banks.
A bench said that the Centre had committed contempt of court by not working on the court’s directives which included setting up of a special investigation team (SIT) to probe cases concerning black money and disclosing information given by Germany about individuals who have stashed money in Liechtenstein Bank. The bench disapproved of the contention of Solicitor General Mohan Parasaran that all the directions in the July 4, 2011 judgement were inter-connected and disclosure of names recei-ved from Germany was to be done after the investigation by the SIT.
“This has nothing to do with the SIT. Today we are very clear that you have to give the documents and information received from Germany about the account holders in Liechtenstein Bank. Secondly, the investigation has to be taken over by the SIT. Thirdly, you have to disclose the names of those against whom show cause notices have been issued,” the bench said while referring to its July 4, 2011 directions wherein it was stated that the Centre had to “forthwith” comply with its order. “In our view the judgement has to be read disjunctively and not conjectively... We have to take the statement of Solicitor General with a pinch of salt,” the bench said.