Supreme Court of India Set up Special Investigation Team on Black Money

The Supreme Court of India on 5 July 2011 appointed SIT (Special Investigation Team), a committee of two of its retired judges to follow the trail of black money stashed in foreign banks. It also asked the government to reveal the names of those who have accounts in foreign banks and against whom inquiries have been started. 

SIT comprised Justice Jeevan Reddy and Justice MB Shah. The committee set up by the Union government will be part of the judicial panel. It will include economists who have been asked by the governments to make a strategy to trace and bring back money stashed in foreign  banks.

The Court asked the government to issue the necessary notifications for the SIT, which will report to the court. All government authorities were told to cooperate with the SIT. The panel has been given power to travel to other countries and to gather information from government agencies.

The step taken by the Supreme Court is a snub to the government which has set up its own committee to find black money and bring it back to India.