Supreme Court is currently hearing Review Petition of
Central Govt filed in the PIL (WP No.176 of 2009) which was filed by noted
lawyer Ram Jethmalani for directions to Government to take prompt measures to
ensure that the money stashed abroad in
illegal bank accounts is brought back to India. The supreme Court had constituted
a SIT for this purpose.
The matter came up on 28th October when the Supreme Court
directed Govt to place the names of all such account holders. On 29th October,
the Govt gave names of 627 such account holders in sealed cover to Court who
then passed it on to SIT for taking appropriate action. The matter will now be taken up on 3rd
December at 3.30 pm.
Here is the text of the Order passed by Supreme court on 29th
October 2014 :
“Shri Mukul Rohtagi, learned Attorney General for India, on
instructions, would submit that as of now, he is not pressing for any of the
prayers made in the Interlocutory Application No. 14 of 2014 filed in Writ
Petition (C) No.176 of 2009.
Placing on
record the said statement by the learned Attorney General, I.A. No. 14 of 2014
is disposed of as having become unnecessary for the present.
Shri
Rohtagi, learned Attorney General, has voluntarily had filed two separate
sealed covers before each of us, which, according to him, contains the names of
those account holders who have their bank accounts in HSBC, Geneva, as received
from the Government of France.
This Court,
while disposing of the Writ Petition, by its order dated 04.07.2011 had
constituted a Special Investigation Team (for short 'the S.I.T.'). That S.I.T.
has been constituted and is functional as of now.
By our order
dated 01.05.2014, we had reconstituted the said S.I.T. and had directed the
newly constituted S.I.T. to take forward the orders and directions issued by
this Court on 04.07.2011. The said S.I.T. is looking into these matters. In fact,
they had filed a Status Report before us on an earlier occasion.
We do not
intend to open the two sealed covers that are placed before each of us by the
learned Attorney General, since we have already constituted an S.I.T. to look
into these matters. The Registry is hereby directed to hand over the said two
sealed covers intact today itself to a responsible officer/person in the S.I.T.
with a specific instruction that it shall not be opened by anybody else except
by the learned Chairman and Vice-chairman of the S.I.T.
It is now
for the S.I.T. to make use of the documents furnished by the learned Attorney
General. We permit the S.I.T. to proceed with the matter in accordance with law
and for that purpose to evolve its own procedure after hearing the learned Attorney
General or his representative, Shri Ram Jethmalani, party-in-person and his
counsel.
We now
request the S.I.T. to furnish before us the latest Status Report as
expeditiously as possible, at any rate, by the end of November, 2014.
We permit
both sides to express their difficulties, grievances and other procedure which
requires to be adopted before the S.I.T.
I.A.No.15 of 2014:
Reply, if
any, be filed to I.A. No. 15 of 2014 within four weeks' time.
Call the
matter on 3rd December, 2014 at 3.30 p.m.”
