 "'Some progress' made to bring back black money")
The court ordered the reports be kept in sealed covers, in the registry. It rejected the request of petitioner and former law minister Ram Jethmalani and his counsel Anil Divan that they be allowed to see the reports. These reports “purely confidential”, the court said.
According to some TV reports, the SIT report is believed to have recommended an overhaul of bilateral tax treaties and stringent provisions in the money laundering law such as giving powers to the Enforcement Directorate to attach properties abroad. The reports also suggested the SIT had identified mining and real estate as two major sectors generating black money.
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Jethmalani said he had visited Germany, corresponded with authorities in that country and received a reply from them. That correspondence would be given to the SIT, he added.
Additional Solicitor General Neeraj Kishan Kaul told the Bench, headed by judge H L Dattu, the government would implement whatever the court ordered.
The court, in its order, allowed Jethmalani and Divan to interact with the SIT members on the “nuances” of the case and the “possible ways of getting back the black money”, adding they could only suggest the “means and method, and nothing beyond that”. Adjourning the matter till November 11, it asked the SIT to proceed with the task given to it in earlier orders and submit more status reports.
In July 2011, the court had set up an SIT headed by retired Supreme Court judge M B Shah.
Divan said the double taxation agreement between India and Germany had nothing to do with this case, as the black money stashed abroad was ill-gotten and unaccounted for. What was relevant was the United Nations convention on corruption, he said, adding the convention had also been followed by European countries.
When contacted, Shah said since the Supreme Court hadn’t passed any specific order, he was “not in a position to say anything”.
Revenue Secretary Shaktikanta Das declined to comment on the matter, saying the report was confidential.
Successive governments at the Centre have failed to put a check on black money stashed abroad. A US-based research and advocacy group had estimated during 2001-2010, there was an outflow of $123 billion of black money from India.
In March this year, the government had disclosed the names of 28 people who had accounts abroad. It had also handed over the details of those who operated these accounts. Most of the accounts relate to Liechtenstein Bank in Germany.