Centre to leak black money holders' names today

New Delhi: In a landmark step in the battle against black money, the Supreme Court on Tuesday directed the Centre to reveal to it all the names of those who had stashed black money overseas on Wednesday in a sealed envelope.

The court refused the government’s plea to modify its earlier order on disclosure of all names, saying this was accepted by the earlier UPA government.

The court asked the Centre not to bother about ordering any kind of probe into the matter, saying that the judges will pass orders on what kind of probe or investigations were necessary, and by which agency.

The bench did not agree with the A-G’s plea that disclosing the account holders’ names would violate the right to privacy of those with legitimate accounts, and that the names can be revealed only after a prima facie case of tax evasion was made out.

“We want the names supplied to you by foreign countries. Pass the information to us. You give the information to us. We have taken up the case and are monitoring it. So give us the information, and we would pass it to the SIT. The SIT will take the case to its logical conclusion,” said the court.

Attorney-general Mukul Rohatgi told the court that the government had received 500 names of account-holders from different countries, including Germany.

Reacting to court’s order, finance minister Arun Jaitley said the government was ready to submit the entire list of black money account-holders to the Supreme Court on Wednesday, as the government was keen to punish all illicit foreign account-holders and would do everything to bring back black money.