New Delhi: The Supreme Court on Tuesday told the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP)-led government it must hand over to the court all the information it has on accounts held by Indians in foreign banks, setting a day’s deadline that finance minister Arun Jaitley said his government would have “no difficulty whatsover" in meeting.

Jaitley said that the government would submit the full list of account holders in an ongoing black money case before the Supreme Court on Wednesday.

“The government has absolutely no difficulty in giving the court the full list. The government is keen to follow whatever procedure to get at the root of the matter so that action can be taken," he added.

Jaitley also said that the government has no problem with any agency investigating the case—a public interest litigation filed by senior lawyer Ram Jethmalani seeking a return of black money allegedly salted away by Indians in foreign banks in order to evade Indian taxes.

“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,“ Jaitley told reporters after the Supreme Court order.

“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 added.

Jaitley said the government is also keen that the procedure followed must be such that the reciprocating countries continue to cooperate with India.

Earlier, passing the order, a bench of chief justice H.L. Dattu and justices Ranjana Prakash Desai and Madan B. Lokur rejected protests by the government, represented by attorney general Mukul Rohatgi, that such disclosure would violate the certificate of confidentiality the Indian government gave when foreign authorities disclosed this information to it. The apex court said it would deal with that problem when it arises.

The court was also unconvinced by Rohatgi’s argument that disclosure of information would hinder negotiation of tax treaties and procurement of information about black money from other countries in the future.

Rohatgi informed the court that the procedure being followed by the government at present was to issue a notice to everyone whose names figured on the lists that had been provided by foreign governments. Following this, the income tax (I-T) authorities would decide whether to launch prosecution—based on whether the response it received gave a satisfactory explanation of why a foreign bank account was held.

Before this stage, the government could not reveal names since this would prejudicially affect genuine account holders.

But the court said the government need not investigate the matter on its own—all it needed to do was “to request foreign countries to give names" and “pass on" the information to the Supreme Court, which would then monitor the probe.

Dattu said the apex court would direct the I-T department or the Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) to conclude the investigations in a month’s time.

Chiding the government for “trying to take a protective umbrella for these people (the account holders)", the chief justice said that “unless we monitor this case, nothing will come out of it".

Even though the court suggested during the course of the proceedings that the information could be submitted in a sealed cover, no specific directions were given on the mode of disclosure.

Aam Aadmi Party chief Arvind Kejriwal has also filed an intervention application in this case saying that he “is in personal knowledge of some of the names, having black money stashed in their foreign bank accounts".

By refusing to clarify an earlier order that had directed the government to disclose names of people against whom investigations had been concluded, the Supreme Court has effectively forced the government to reveal the names even if the investigation had found their accounts to be genuine.

Analysts said the political implications of the court order could be far-reaching.

While the BJP has said that revealing the names of account holders could “embarrass" the opposition Congress party, the latter has accused the ruling party of acting out of a motive of political vendetta.

On Tuesday, the Congress party welcomed the Supreme Court’s decision and accused the BJP of “political blackmail" over the issue.

“We welcome the Supreme Court’s decision in which it has said sternly that all the names must be provided in the court by the government," said Ajay Maken, Congress spokesperson and general secretary. “We have always said that black money should come back to India as promised by the BJP in its election campaign."

If the BJP’s claim is true, then this could spell trouble for the Congress, whose senior leader and former minister of state for external affairs, Preneet Kaur, is said to be on the list.

Kaur said on TV channels on Monday that she had received a notice from the tax department concerning a foreign account allegedly in her name; she said she held no such account.

According to Shiv Visvanathan, a New Delhi-based sociologist and professor at the Jindal School of Government and Public Policy in Haryana, the Supreme Court was essentially trying to pull the plug on the political blame game generated by the issue.

“The Supreme Court is pre-empting the political games over the issue of black money and is basically saying that this is a legal matter. Politically, this is turning into a long-range political blame game and the apex court is saying there should be no more of it," Vishwanathan said. “This is not a round of musical chairs; if someone is guilty, it should be so irrespective of whichever political party they belong to," he added.

“In the long run this could trigger conflict between the executive and the judiciary but that is not really the main question. The point is that scandals and scams happen in this country and there is never an ending. Lots of names are tossed, the society consumes it and nothing happens eventually," Vishwanathan said.

“The court seems to be expressing a trust deficit with the government. The new government got a massive mandate for change but their approach towards this issue was one of continuing in the footsteps of the previous government. It (the court) wants the government to show both intent and action," said Rahul Singh, who teaches at the National Law School, Bangalore and researches at Balliol College, University of Oxford.

Rahul Garg, leader of direct tax practice at PricewaterhouseCoopers, a consulting firm, said the decision by the government will definitely generate debate on the aspect of confidentiality in international treaties, as one may claim that even if given in a sealed envelope, a disclosure has been made as the information has been handed over to another party other.

“However, ultimately the sovereign right of the government should prevail. The Indian government should be able to explain to its partner countries through diplomatic channels that the names were handed over to the judiciary under special circumstances and that it was not a matter of routine," he added.

Corruption was a key election issue in the April-May Lok Sabha polls and charges against senior leaders of the Congress, which led the previous United Progressive Alliance government, contributed to the heaviest electoral defeat suffered by the party.

On Monday, the government disclosed the names of three people or entities it said had salted away black money in illegal foreign bank accounts, but none of them were politicians from the Congress.

Anuja, Gyan Verma and Asit Ranjan Mishra contributed to this story.

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