Black money plea before SC

The Supreme Court will hear 16 high-profile citizens,including former chief election commissioner J N Lyngdoh and former Mumbai police commissioner Julio F Ribeiro....

The Supreme Court will hear 16 high-profile citizens,including former chief election commissioner J N Lyngdoh and former Mumbai police commissioner Julio F Ribeiro,seeking judicial intervention to bring home Rs 65 lakh crore or approximately 1.45 trillion belonging to Indian nationals,illegally transferred out of the country and lying in secret Swiss bank accounts across 70 tax havens.

The writ petition,scheduled for hearing on February 5 before the apex court,is filed in the name of an apolitical and social forum called India Rejuvenation Initiative and is termed as a collective affirmative action to check corruption and restoration of probity and accountability in public life.

The group claims that if retrieved,the Rs 65 lakh crore could be better used by the government to wipe out the poverty of millions of Indians and provide a decent living as envisaged in Article 21 of the Constitution. The present petition is seeking intervention of this Honble Court to bring back into India Rs 65 lakh crore 1.45 trillion approx. of illegally transferred out of the country and lying in secret Swiss Bank accounts. It is widely known that there are around 70 tax havens where huge untold wealth has been siphoned off from India, the petitioners alleged in their joint petition.

The petition attacked the UPA for not taking all necessary steps to bring back the countrys stolen assets stashed in foreign banks.

Although the government is fully aware and cognizant of huge wealth illegally stashed away in secret accounts in tax haven worldwide and certain nations have offered disclosure and assistance to retrieve and recover the same,for strange and unknown reasons,the government has failed to take any proactive concrete measures to obtain the information and act, it alleges. They claimed the government inaction is a deliberate attempt to give time for the suspected tax-evaders to move their money to other safe havens.