Supreme Court defers hearing on plea seeking steps to recover black money stashed in foreign banks

The Supreme Court Tuesday deferred the hearing of a petition filed in 2009 by senior advocate the late Ram Jethmalani and others seeking steps to recover black money stashed in foreign banks. A bench of Justices S A Nazeer, A S Bopanna and V Ramasubramanian adjourned the matter after the lawyer appearing for the petitioners sought time to seek instructions.

Besides Jethmalani, five others, including former Punjab DGP K P S Gill, also dead now, and former secretary general of the Lok Sabha Subhash Kashyap, have alleged in the petition that the government was not taking action on bringing back the tainted money. They have accused the Centre of non-cooperative conduct by not supplying them vital documents relating to black money in foreign banks.

An important document sought by them is a copy of the March 17, 2008 letter sent by the German government to India which stated it was not in a position to provide information sought by New Delhi through a letter dated February 27, 2009. The petitioners alleged the authorities are determined to withhold these documents and claimed such a belief is well-founded because in spite of several attempts they have not got them.

The application said, for effectively assisting the court, they need the Centre's March 5, 2009 letter to the Indian Ambassador to Germany relating to the issue of Indian taxpayers.