CURTAINS FOR BLACK-MONEY?

In setting up a Special Investigation Team to monitor investigations into the issue of Black Money the Supreme Court has moved to a hitherto unexplored area in an unprecedented manner. This master stroke also tantamounts to censuring the government for its failure to get its acts together on the sensitive issue so far with the urgency with which it should have acted. However, it is a matter of fact that the political parties have no clarity of purpose and sense of urgency to unearth the money stashed abroad, which is running into tens of thousands of Crores of rupees to home - estimated to be a mouth-watering Rs 500 billion ($1.4 trillion) according to conservative figures. Had they been sincere about it, there would have been at least some genuine efforts to get back this Black money from the safe havens. In fact, no one appears resolute about this which must have prompted the apex court to move swiftly and convincingly. The centre alone cannot be blamed for the black money, which is an inherited problem of several decades. The stakeholders in the black-money must be from all walks of life barring the poor and the middle-class, who have nothing to stash abroad or for that matter in their own country. The Supreme Court decision would be welcomed by welcomed by a large section of the society as this is likely to force the hands of the government to refrain from dodging the issue any more. The agencies concerned will also be compelled by the legal supervision to pursue black-money doggedly and purposefully. Nevertheless, the unprecedented action of the apex court is likely to heighten the confrontation between the legislative and the judiciary in an equally, if not more, unprecedented way.