The Centre will disclose the list comprising over 600 names of the black money account holders on Wednesday after the Supreme Court slammed it for “giving a protective umbrella to foreign bank account holders”. The court had said that Special Investigation Team will investigate black money and not the government.
Finance Minister Arun Jaitley said that no one will be protected. The list will be given to the Supreme Court in a sealed envelope, he said on Tuesday, but did not say if the government was open to making the list public.
"The government shall place the list before the court because the government has already given (the list) to the court constituted Special Investigating Team (on June 27). The government is keen that by whatever procedure in accordance with law we must get to the root of the matter.
"...the government has no difficulty in placing the entire list and the same will be placed before the court tomorrow," Jaitley told reporters on Tuesday.
Attorney General Mukul Rohatgi said that the complete list will be submitted by 10:30 am to the Supreme Court on Wednesday.
The apex court pulled up the government for seeking a modification of its order on disclosure of names of black money holders abroad.
Jaitley said the government was keen to punish all illicit foreign account holders and would do everything to bring back the black money. "The truth about these names and also these accounts must come out so that penal action can be taken against the people and the money lying there can be brought back to India.”
"The government has no difficulty whatsoever with any agency investigating this matter because there is nobody the government wants to protect in this case so that those whose names have come must really be investigated and punished according to law," he said.
Jaitley said the government is also keen that the procedure followed must be such that the reciprocating countries continue to cooperate with India.
