SC reserves order on plea against its SIT to probe black money!

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Courtesy:  PTI / The Hindu / NEW DELHI, September 1, 2011.

A file picture of Supreme Court in New Delhi. Photo: V. Sudershan - The Hindu.

The Supreme Court on Thursday reserved its orders on the maintainability of the Centre's plea for recall of its July 4 order appointing an SIT to probe the black money issue.

A bench of justices Altamas Kabir and S S Nijjar said it would pass appropriate orders on the maintainability plea on September 20.

Earlier, resuming the arguments, senior counsel Anil Divan, appearing for the petitioners Ram Jethmalani and others, said the Centre's plea should be dismissed as the recall application "is, in fact, an appeal on merits, disguised as an application for modification and is an abuse of the process to defeat the public interest".

Mr. Divan submitted that the order constituting the SIT was passed by the apex court after hearing detailed arguments for several days.

Citing the apex court's earlier directions on forming SITs in cases relating to post-Godhra riots and CBI investigations in various matters, Mr. Divan argued that appointment of the two Supreme Court judges to head the SIT would only lend credibility to the probe.

The counsel submitted that the Centre cannot oppose it as it did not violate its fundamental rights and the principle of natural justice was observed by hearing the government before passing the impugned order.

Attorney General G E Vahanvati, in his brief intervention, said the order ought to be recalled as the Centre was proceeding in the right direction in unearthing the black money allegedly stashed away in foreign tax havens.

The Centre had earlier told the bench that the SIT set up by the apex court to probe and unearth black money needs to be scrapped as the investigating agency cannot function like a "super power."

Mr. Vahanvati had said the Government had "very serious" reservations on the court's directions which had also cast aspersions on sincerity of the Government in tackling the black money menace.

Mr. Divan had sought dismissal of the Centre's application and had said the apex court had rightly constituted the SIT as even the Centre had at that time admitted that the investigations were not proceeding in the right direction.

The bench had pointed out that the SIT was initially constituted by the Centre and the apex court had merely incorporated the names of retired SC judges, justices B P Jeevan Reddy and M B Shah.

The government, in its application, had also raised objections to the apex court remarks criticising the Cenrte's handling of black money cases.

The court had made the critical observations while appointing its former judges - justices Reddy and Shah, as chairman and vice-chairman of the 13-member SIT into which the Director of Research and Analysis Wing (RAW) too had been inducted.

The Centre, in its application for recall of the Court's July 4 order had contended that the SIT was formed without being prayed for and has questioned the Court remarks that investigations into the issue of black money stashed abroad was moving at a "laggardly pace".

The bench had in its order said the money stashed away reveal the degree of "softness of the State".

                                      

INDIA'S GANGRENE: The cost of the black economy!

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Arun Kumar, The Hindu / August 20, 2011.

A candlelight march in protest against corruption and black money, at Jantar Mantar, in New Delhi. Photo: Shiv Kumar Pushpakar - The Hindu.

Much of the black economy in India is like “digging holes and filling them.” One digs a hole during the day and another fills it up at night. The next day, there is zero output but two salaries are paid.

Anna Hazare's fast seeking the acceptance of the Jan Lokpal Bill, and the widespread mass protests in urban India that followed his arrest from home, have shaken the government. Political parties have woken up to the depth of feeling against corruption. Two factors have come together — the fight for the Jan Lokpal Bill and the violation of the citizen's civil right to protest. The snowballing protests are seen to be against corruption. Obviously, the public are fed up with the day-to-day harassment they face. To put this in perspective, it is important to understand the benefits to society of tackling the huge black economy in India.

Some people argue that the black economy also generates jobs and production. For instance, they argue that a lot of goods are bought in the market using black incomes, and that leads to increase in production and employment. They argue that the black economy generates informal sector employment and helps the poor. Some go to the extent of arguing that India escaped the worst effects of the global recession in 2008, and the economy only slowed down, because a large amount of black money was floating around — which generated additional demand. Some justify bribes as “speed money” that enables work to be done faster. There is some truth in all this. Yet, it can be shown that the ill-effects of the black economy far outweigh its beneficial effects.

Think of bribe as “speed money.” In order to extract a bribe, the bureaucracy first slows down work and harasses the public. If work was automatically done, why would anyone pay bribes? Thus, the system has to be made inefficient so that those who can afford to pay can get their work done quickly but the rest continue to suffer. The administration becomes rundown since rather than devising ways to work efficiently, it is busy thinking of ways to make money by setting up roadblocks to efficient functioning. This has spawned a culture of ‘middlemen' and personal approach to officers. Things hardly happen in the routine manner. The corrupt need the middleman to insulate themselves from direct public contact lest someone reports them. The bribe-giver also, not knowing how much to bribe and how to contact the administrator in charge, finds it a convenient arrangement.

Much of the black economy in India is like “digging holes and filling them.” That is, one digs a hole during the day and then another fills it up at night; the next day there is zero output but two salaries are paid. This is “activity without productivity.” An example is of poorly made roads that get washed away or become pot-holed with every rain and need repeated repairs. Thus, instead of new roads coming up, much of the budget allocation is spent on maintenance. Teachers may not teach properly in class so that students have to go for tuitions. Not only families have to pay extra but the students find learning to be insipid and lose interest. This affects their creativity and future.

Consider how millions of litigants, their families/friends, and lawyers arrive daily in the courts. In most instances, the hearing in a particular case lasts just a few minutes. The next date, weeks or months away, is announced, and they go back home. Not only is justice delayed inordinately, but time is lost and expenses are incurred on lawyers' fees, travel, and so on. Cases that could be resolved in a few months go on for years, multiplying costs. The expense of delayed justice is both direct and indirect. Delay is often a result of the impact of the black economy. Honest people who lose hope start resorting to other means, which dents the notion of social justice and weakens society. This cost cannot be calculated in monetary terms but it is significant.

Because of the growing black economy, policies fail both at the macro-level and the micro-level. Planning or monetary policy or fiscal policies do not achieve the desired results because of the existence of a substantial black economy. Targets for education, health, drinking water and so on are not achieved because “expenditures do not mean outcomes.” The economy does not lack resources but faces resource shortage. Much investment goes into wasteful and unproductive channels, like holding gold or real estate abroad. The flight of capital lowers the employment potential and the level of output in the economy. Capital sent abroad does not generate output in India but does so where it goes. A country that is considered capital-short has been exporting capital. A nation that gives concessions to multinational corporations to bring in capital loses more capital than it gets, and that too at a high cost, from foreign institutional investments or foreign direct investment. India's policies are open to the dictates of international capital because the country's businessmen and politicians have taken capital out in large doses since Independence. The costs are huge.

Full Story at,

http://www.thehindu.com/opinion/lead/article2373664.ece?homepage=true

India's illicit financial outflows estimated at 20.92 lakh crore!

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zeenews.india.com / Updated on Tuesday, August 16, 2011, 19:05.

New Delhi: A report of Global Financial Integrity (GFI) has estimated the total value of illicit money that has flown out of India at USD 462 billion (about Rs 20.92 lakh crore), Parliament was informed Tuesday.

"The present value of India's total illicit financial flows, as per the (GFI) report is USD 462 billion," Minister of State for Finance S S Palanimanickam said in a written reply to the Rajya Sabha.

As per the GFI report, the country lost a total of USD 213 billion in illicit financial flows during 1948-2008.

The minister further said the government was negotiating new Double Taxation Avoidance Agreements (DTAAs) with various countries.

Besides, it has also taken steps to update the article concerning exchange of information in existing DTAAs to specifically allow for exchange of banking information and information without domestic interest, he said.

Full Story at,

http://zeenews.india.com/business/news/news_content.aspx?newscatid=1&newsid=28496

Mollywood producers say no to black money!

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August 5, 2011 / By R. Ayyappan, DC, Thiruvananthapuram.

In the wake of the income tax raids against superstars Mammootty and Mohanlal, the 400-member strong Film Producers’ Association has written to every actor charging over Rs 3 lakh a film saying that there will be no more black money transactions.

“If we don’t tighten things now, it will be the producers who will be in trouble,’’ said Mr Sabu Cherian, the president of the Association.

Mr Sabu said the producers were only trying to revive a decision taken last year.

Full Story at,

http://www.deccanchronicle.com/channels/showbiz/others/mollywood-producers-say-no-black-money-409

S.C.'s SIT ON BLACKMONEY CASE: Govt contradicts its stand on SITs!

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• July 17, 2011 
• By S.S. NEGI 
• Correspondent 
• New Delhi / DC.

Though the UPA government has questioned the Supreme Court’s order setting up of a Special Investigating Team to probe the black money issue, its challenge seemed to be contrary to its earlier stand strongly supporting the formation of SITs for probing the Gujarat riot and Sohrabuddin encounter cases.

Constitution of the SITs on the orders of the court for probing the high-profile cases was also not new, as it had happened in several complex crimes with political overtones like the Rajiv Gandhi assassination and the JMM MPs bribery case.

When the Supreme Court heard long arguments on the PILs by the National Human Rights Commission and the NGO Citizen for Justice and Peace demanding constitution of an SIT to investigate the Gujarat riots, different law officers of the Centre, including the late Attorney-General Milon Banerjee and former Solicitor-General Gopal Subramaniam, had strongly supported their petitions.

Similar supportive stand was taken by Mr Subramaniam — who incidentally had resigned recently in the backdrop of “adverse” orders in the black money and the 2G scam cases argued by him — for an SIT probe into the Sohrabuddin fake encounter in Gujarat.

01) Successive Indian Governments have failed to curb corruption and blackmoney!

02) It only acted on investigations on corruption allegations only when is was directed to do so!!

03) And on black money, it hardly has done anything despite directive of the Supreme Court and several reprimands!!!

04) It has no right to contest the Supreme Court's decision on constituting an S.I.T. to probe the blackmoney stashed away abroad as well as concealed in Indian Economic System!!!!

05) With its filibustering, it only is wasting the public money and the Honourable Courts's time!!!!!

Full Story at,

http://www.deccanchronicle.com/channels/nation/north/govt-contradicts-its-stand-sits-235

INDIA's BLACK MONEY: Supreme Court appoints SIT!

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PTI / The Hindu /  NEW DELHI, July 4, 2011.

The Supreme Court on Monday appointed a high-level Special Investigation Team (SIT) headed by former apex court judge B.P. Jeevan Reddy to monitor the investigation and the steps being taken to bring back black money stashed away in foreign banks.

Besides Justice Reddy, who will be the chairman of the SIT, the apex court also appointed its former judge, Justice M.B. Shah as the vice-chairman of the panel.

A bench comprising 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 “forthwith” be a part of the SIT.

The bench also directed the government to disclose the names of all the persons who have been issued show cause notices by the authorities in connection with the probe into the black money issue.

The court, however, made it clear that the authorities would not disclose the names of those who have not been investigated in connection with deposits made in foreign banks including Liechtenstein bank.

The court passed the order on a petition filed by eminent jurist Ram Jethmalani and others seeking directions to the government to track black money stashed away abroad and bring it back.

The apex court directed the government to issue notification forthwith regarding the appointment of SIT and ordered that government machinery to cooperate with it.

The bench, while passing the order, made some hard-hitting observation against the Centre for its “failure” to take proper action against people who have illegally stashed away money in foreign banks.

Now that the Honourable Supreme Court of India has decided to Investigate the matter, can we hope to bring back all our black money stashed away abroad?

Another major factor is there at least several times of black money hidden within the India that also needs to be ferreted out!

Full Story at,

http://www.thehindu.com/news/national/article2158229.ece

INDIA'S SHAME: Child labour generates Rs 1.2 lakh crore black money every year!

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• June 12, 2011 
• PTI 
• New Delhi / DC.

• 
  

Representative image - AFP.

Amid a heated debate over bringing back unaccounted money stashed abroad, a child rights outfit has claimed that child labour generates Rs 1.2 lakh crore of blackmoney every year in India.

According to a report 'Capital Corruption: Child Labour in India' prepared by Bachpan Bachao Andolan (BBA), the figure was arrived at by calculating the number of child labourers, the income earned by them and the illicit profits being generated by employers by not appointing adult workers.

"The greed for maximisation of profit fuels the demand for child labour, with children as cheapest form of labour. Child labour, corruption and flow of black money, fuel and sustain each other in an illicit nexus that only profits the employers and the middlemen," the study said.

This is as worse as infanticide!

Full Story at,

http://www.deccanchronicle.com/channels/nation/north/child-labour-generates-rs-12-lakh-crore-black-money-every-year-931

Flip-Flop Ramdev: "Ramdev's Fast-unto-Death is broken, voluntarily!

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IANS / The Hindu.

A doctor checks the weight of yoga guru Baba Ramdev on the fourth day of his indefinite strike at Patanjali Yogpeeth in Haridwar on Tuesday.

Yoga guru Baba Ramdev, who continued his fast against corruption for the sixth day on Thursday, has agreed to take lemon juice and honey in the evening, but may be force-fed glucose, a senior district official said here.

“He is not going to break his fast. I have asked him to take lemon juice and honey and he has complied. He will take it in the evening,” R. Meenakshi Sundaram, District Magistrate of Haridwar, told IANS over phone.

“His condition has worsened. So, we requested him,” he added.

My Take:  

With lemon and honey, his fast is broken.

If I starve for one day, I would pass out and if for two days, I would die;  having said that I do not subscribe to anybody dieing due to fasting.

While on that subject, it is interesting to note that apart from Mahatmaji who fasted many times, in Indian History, there are two true Satyagrahis who in fact fasted-unto-death:

According to http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Potti_Sreeramulu Potti Sreeramulu fasted in the heart of Madras (Chennai) city for over 82 days for an Andhra state with Madras as the capital – and died on 15 December (i.e. early 16 December 1952).  

The reasons as to why the Rajaji government, Union government led by Nehru or police did not intervene to force feed or shift him to a hospital remain unclear. It is interesting to note that only one person before him in modern Indian history Jatin Das actually fasted to death; all the others either gave up or were arrested and force fed or hospitalised.

Jatindra Nath Das (also known as Jatin Das) (27 October 1904 – 13 September 1929) was an Indian freedom fighter and revolutionary. The death of Jatin Das in Lahore jail after 63 days of hunger strike shocked the whole of India. Jatin Das is the only person to fast to death before independence, Potti Sreeramulu fasted to death for a separate Andhra after independence http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jatin_Das

Full Story at,

http://www.thehindu.com/news/national/article2090836.ece