New Delhi, January 14: The Supreme Court today directed the
Solicitor General of India Gopal Subramaniam to seek instructions
from the Centre to disclose the names of secret account holders,
who have stashed away huge amount of black money involving lakhs
of crores of rupees in foreign banks.
A bench comprising Justices B Sudershan Reddy and S S Nijjar
asked the government, ”What is the difficulty in identifying
these tax evaders indulging in money laundering?”
The apex court directed the Solicitor General to seek
instructions by next Wednesday i.e. January 19 and inform the
court about the stand of the Centre on the issue.
The court was hearing a Public Interest Litigation (PIL) filed
by former Law Minister and country’s leading advocate Ram
Jethmalani,former Punjab Director General of Police (DGP) K P S Gill, former Lok Sabha Secretary General Subhash Kashyap and others seeking
directions to the Centre to take prompt and effective step to bring
back about Rs 70 lakh crore of black money illegally stashed away
by these tax evaders, including top politicians, bureaucrats
and industrialists.
The petitioners have alleged that the government is dragging
its feet in the matter and recently it has received information
regarding foreign bank account holders from Germany and Swiss banks
which have also agreed to reveal the details of bank accounts
of the Indians subject to certain conditions.
–Agencies