SIT has no authority to summon anyone in black money case, says Pasayat

Former Supreme Court judge Arijit Pasayat, who has been made a member of the Special Investigation Team (SIT) currently probing the names of those accused of stashing black money in safe havens abroad, on Thursday said the panel has no authority to summon anybody.

"We have not summoned anyone. The case is now at the stage of investigation. After the investigation is complete, the departmental authorities will assess if there is a need for prosecution. Moreover, we cannot summon anyone, only the concerned departments can do so," he told ANI.

Pasayat further said that the due course of law must be followed, and added that the accused must be given an opportunity to defend himself.

"After getting the names, the first stage is for the concerned department to issue notices to them because as a matter of law, you cannot take any action against somebody unless the party concerned is given an opportunity to have its say. In this case, because it involves assessment of income tax, the party has to be given a notice; the response, if any, has to be considered and then an order has to be passed," said Pasayat.

"After that order is passed, if there is a need for an imposing penalty or any prosecuting proceedings are to be considered by the concerned authority under the tax department," he added.

Pasayat informed that the SIT would submit its report to the apex court by the last week of November.

"After receiving the list, the concerned department has started processing the work. As required by the Supreme Court, we'll give our report in the last week of November about the progress in the steps taken by the department and the results if any," said Pasayat.

"It is a time consuming process, a very hard and difficult task. But we will try to complete our procedure as early as practically possible," he added.

Earlier on Tuesday, the Supreme Court asked the Centre to release all the names of the people who have stashed their black money in accounts abroad. While there are no official estimates, Global Financial Integrity (GFI), a Washington-based think-tank, has estimated that Indians had parked USD 462 billion in overseas tax havens between 1948 and 2008.