Blackmoney: SC rejects Centre's plea against setting up of SIT

No effort was made to bring back the money stashed in foreign banks, says the SC bench

The Supreme Court today rejected Centre's plea to recall its order for setting up a Special Investigation Team (SIT) to probe all cases of black money, saying it stepped in as for over six decades "the government failed to bring back the money stashed in foreign banks to the country".

"Let us see the SIT will do things which this country is dreaming of," a three-judge bench headed by Justice H L Dattu observed while dismissing the Centre's plea and pulling it up for its reluctance to accept the SIT headed by two retired judges of the apex court.

The apex court said its two-judge bench in its July 4 2011 order for setting up of SIT felt that "no effort was made to bring back the money stashed in foreign banks" which could have been accounted and pumped into the "mainstream of the Indian economy".

"It was the feeling of this court that no effort was made to bring back the money stashed in foreign banks and no effort was made to disclose the names of those whose money were in the foreign banks.

"If the money would have been brought back the economy of the country would have gone up. Per capita income would have gone up. Income tax rate which we are paying at 30 per cent would have been reduced," the bench, also comprising justices Ranjana Prakash Desai and Madan B Lokur, observed.

The bench brushed aside the contention of Solicitor General Mohan Parasaran that "the mechanism was already in place" for dealing with issue of black money and expressed its anguish that the Centre was "literally" running away from the SIT-monitored probe.

"Since 1947, nobody thought for 65 years to bring these money stashed in foreign banks to the country. Government has failed in its role for 65 years. We are not impressed by your statement, If you had undertaken the exercise there was no need for continous mandamus and we would have not stepped in," the bench said.

"This court in the economic interest of the country thinks that black money lying in different countries should be brought back and the court feels that you have failed in your duty in doing so and so it gave an order for the appointment of the committee headed by former judges of this court," the bench said.