COUNTERVIEW:
Ahmedabad: Wednesday, 23 December 2015.
Yet another
instance has come to light suggesting the Government of India isn’t keen on
sharing information on black money. The Ministry of Finance has lately refused
to part with official information on action taken following former Geneva-based
HSBC Bank employee and whistleblower Herve Falciani’s leaked information on
account holders who had stashed away black money in the bank.
A Right to
Information (RTI) plea by senior activist of New Delhi-based advocacy group,
Commonwealth Human Rights Initiative (CHRI), Venkatesh Nayak, had sought
information, more than a month ago, copy of the letter reportedly written by
Falciani to the Chairman, Special Investigation Team (SIT), constituted
following a Supreme Court order of 2011, and its responses sent by the SIT.
The RTI plea
also sought copies of file notings of SIT, and also documents that contain
details of action taken by SIT in pursuant to the letter of Falciani. More
recently, Falciani wrote to Prime Minister Narendra Modi and chairperson,
Special Investigation Team (SIT), constituted in May 2014 to investigate
unaccounted money stashed abroad.
While the RTI
application was addressed to the Black Money SIT, attached with the Ministry of
Finance, Nayak, ironically, received a reply from the Income Tax Department
under the Central Board of Direct Taxes (CBDT). The latter rejected the
application, especially citing “fiduciary relationship” provision of the RTI
Act’s Section 8(1).
Comments
Nayak, the reply suggests there appears to be “an inexplicable hesitation”
about recognising Falciani as a whistleblower. The effort, instead, was to club
him with “other persons who claim to be whistleblowers who have come forward to
provide assistance in the investigation of black money stashed abroad.”
According to
Nayak, by describing the relationship between the CBDT and a whistleblower as
fiduciary, new standards are being set on secrecy, “which even the Supreme
Court did not recognize.” Thus, in the Reserve Bank of India (RBI) case “the
Apex Court clarified that all and sundry relationships especially those
governed by statutory requirements cannot be termed ‘fiduciary’ in nature.”
He quotes the
Apex Court as saying, “It had long since come to our attention that the Public
Information Officers (PIO) under the guise of one of the exceptions given under
Section 8 of RTI Act, have evaded the general public from getting their hands
on the rightful information that they are entitled to."
Significantly,
Nayak says, the ruling runs count to the Prime Minister’s address, in October
2015, to commemorate the 10th anniversary of the implementation of the RTI Act,
where he said that citizens should not only have the right to get copies of
documents but also ask question and demand accountability from public
authorities, because the right to ask questions is the very foundation of democracy
and it will reinforce their faith in democracy.
“Many PIOs
seem to think otherwise thereby making a mockery of this promise. The black
money issue is one of immense public interest as it links inextricably with the
businessmen-criminal-politician-bureaucrat nexus, corruption, tax evasion,
money laundering, round tripping and pure and plain criminality”, Nayak says.
“The
Government releases very little information about the progress made by the SIT
on black money”, says Nayak, adding, Only one set of answers to a query raised
by an MP in the Lok Sabha is accessible on the website of Parliament for the
ongoing Winter Session”, Nayak says, adding, “These answers focus on systemic
changes required to be made or already effectuated by the Government.”
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