The Hindu : National : Centre questions timing of plea on black money

Online edition of India's National Newspaper
Thursday, Apr 23, 2009
ePaper | Mobile/PDA Version

National

National

Centre questions timing of plea on black money

J. Venkatesan

New Delhi: The Union government on Wednesday questioned in the Supreme Court the timing of the filing of a petition by the former Union Law Minister, Ram Jethmalani, and five others for a direction to take steps to bring back Rs.70,00,000 crore illegally hoarded in Swiss banks.

Additional Solicitor-General (ASG) Gopal Subramaniam told a Bench, comprising Chief Justice K.G. Balakrishnan and Justices L.S. Panta and P. Sathasivam, that the timing of filing the petition was mystifying when the election process was on.

The ASG said, “The government is acting on the matter and to receive the petition during the election time leaves ground for mystification. The purpose is something else.” He denied the allegation that the government had not taken any action. “Prime Minister Manmohan Singh, in his opening speech at the recent G-20 summit in London, said there should be absolute transparency and banking secrecy should be over.”

Mr. Subramaniam said: “We are the leaders in seeking transparency in these types of matters.” The Finance Ministry had written to the German authorities in February and June 2008 when the issue appeared in the media seeking information about Indian account holders in the LGP Bank there.

“The situation is totally under control. The investigation is in progress in respect of other foreign banks but I can’t make further disclosures.”

When the Chief Justice said the court would issue notice, seeking the Centre’s response, he said sending notice at this time would not be appropriate. “We will file in 48 hours what we have done so far.” The Bench, without issuing notice, posted the matter for May 4.

Earlier, senior counsel Anil Divan submitted that the intention of the petitioners was not to single out any individual but to see that a general direction was given for bringing back the money from foreign banks. “We don’t want any individual names. We want general information,” he said.

He said all political parties were equally responsible for the present state of affairs. Though the issue came to light in February 2008, the government did not take any concrete step so far to the extent that not a single account had been frozen.

“Alarming situation”

Senior counsel T.R. Andhyarujina, appearing for the petitioners, said: “If action is not taken, money will not come back. The situation was alarming as the Swiss Bank authorities were candid to say that India tops the list with around Rs. 1.5 lakh crore deposited with them.”

The petitioners, who included Gopal Sharman, Jalbala Vaidya, K.P.S. Gill, B.B. Dutt and Subhash Kashyap, submitted that according to reports, between 2002 and 2006 an estimated Rs. 70 lakh crore was siphoned off from India and parked in foreign bank accounts. The government did not take any steps to seize such funds and to prosecute and punish the guilty, they said.

Seek directives

They urged the court to direct the government, Reserve Bank of India and the Securities and Exchange Board of India to disclose facts that had come to their knowledge on this issue; to direct the Centre to apply to the foreign banks, more particularly the UBS Bank, Switzerland, for freezing such accounts and to issue timely orders so that investigation was not suppressed.

Printer friendly page
Send this article to Friends by E-Mail

National