SC adjourns hearing in PILs filed by Ram Jethmalani to recover black money

New Delhi, Aug 30: The Supreme Court on Tuesday adjourned a petition filed by the late senior advocate and politician, 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.

"This is an important matter which has been engaging your Lordships' attention. In fact, your Lordships directed the government, through the committee, to file reports on how to tackle problems of black money in the country. Many reports have been submitted in sealed covers. I have to seek instructions from committee members on what has to be done. Kindly adjourn by two weeks," Live Law website quoted the bench as saying.

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 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.