Supreme Court sets up SIT to probe black money

The Supreme Court on Monday appointed a high-level Special Investigation Team (SIT) headed by former apex court judge BP Jeevan Reddy to monitor the investigation and to bring back the black money being stored in foreign banks. The apex court also appointed, Justice M B Shah as the vice-chairman. A bench comprising of Justices B Sudershan Reddy and S S Nijjar directed that the High Level Committee (HLC) constituted by the government to look into the issue of black money would be a part of the 'SIT'. The bench also directed the government to disclose the names of the persons against whom the show cause notices has been issued by the authorities in connection with the black money issue. The court, however made it very clear that they will not disclose the names of the persons, who have not been investigated in connection with deposits made in foreign banks. The court passed such an order on a petition filed by lawyer Ram Jethmalani and others seeking directions to the government to track black money being stored in foreign banks and to bring it back. The apex court directed the government to issue notice regarding the appointment of SIT and ordered the government machinery to co-operate with it. The bench while passing the order made some hitting observations against the Centre for it "failure" to take action against the people who have stashed away the black money in foreign banks. The bench also stated its disappointment as it was a very serious failure from the part of the government to cure this problem which in turn affects both the internal and external security. While directing the SIT to take over all the cases relating to the issue of black money, the bench stated that there was a need for continuous involvement of the court in this issue. The court also asked the SIT to submit a comprehensive action plan to deal with cases relating to the black money issue. The bench said that the issue of black money has to be taken with a degree of seriousness and the state is primarily responsible to make all efforts to bring back the country such wealth and punish the people who were indulged in such activities. Reported by   AR