RAM JETHMALANI Vs. UNION OF INDIA

JUDGEMENT

(1.) Writ Petition (Civil) No.176 of 2009 was filed by Shri Ram Jethmalani and five others against the Union of India, the Reserve Bank of India, the Securities Exchange Board of India, the Director, Directorate of Enforcement and the Chairman, Central Board of Direct Taxes, Department of Revenue, Ministry of Finance, Government of India, against the purported inaction of the Government to arrange for recovery of large sums of money deposited by Indian citizens in foreign banks and, in particular, in Swiss Banks. In that context the Petitioners, inter alia, prayed for the following reliefs :-

(2.) On 4th July, 2011, on I.A. No.1 of 2009 in the Writ Petition several directions were given. In fact, the said order was divided into three parts. The first part of the order dealt with the alleged failure of the Central Government to recover the large sums of money kept in such foreign banks and in tax havens having strong secrecy laws with regard to deposits made by individuals. The second part dealt with the unlawful activities allegedly funded out of such deposits and accounts which were a threat to the security and integrity of India. The amounts deposited in such tax havens in respect of one Shri Hassan Ali Khan and Shri Kashinath Tapuria and his wife Chandrika Tapuria were alleged to be in billions of dollars in UBS Bank in Zurich alone. Income Tax demands were made to Shri Hassan Ali Khan for Rs.40,000 crores and a similar demand was served on the Tapurias amounting to Rs.20,580 crores. On being convinced that, in the absence of any known source of income, the large sums of money involved in the various transactions by Hassan Ali Khan and the Tapurias were the proceeds of crime, which required a thorough investigation, this Court felt the necessity of appointing a Special Investigation Team to act on behalf and at the behest of the directions of this Court. It was noted by this Court that the issues involved were complex and would require expertise and knowledge of different departments and the coordination of efforts between various agencies and departments. It was also recorded that on behalf of the Union of India, it had been submitted that a High Level Committee had recently been formed under the initiative of the Department of Revenue in the Ministry of Finance, composed of :

(3.) The third part of the order deals with the disclosure of various documents referred to by the Union of India in relation to the names and particulars of various bank accounts of Indian citizens in the Principality of Liechtenstein, a small landlocked sovereign nation-state in Europe, which is generally acknowledged as a tax haven.