NEW DELHI: The Supreme Court on Tuesday stayed the Delhi High Court order that had held that the 2016 black money law could not be allowed to operate with retrospective effect from July 2015 to book and probe offenders. A vacation bench headed by Justice Arun Mishra also stayed the May 16 order of the high court which had restrained the Income Tax department from taking any action against VVIP chopper scam accused Gautam Khaitan, against whom a black money case has been lodged.
The bench issued a notice to Khaitan and asked him to file his response to the government’s petition within six weeks. On May 16, the high court had stayed the Centre’s notification to make the Black Money (Undisclosed Foreign Income and Assets) and Imposition of Tax Act operational with effect from July 1, 2015. The high court had said that Parliament, in its wisdom, had enacted the Act, which was to come into force from April 1, 2016, and as the date was expressly decided by Parliament, it could not be made applicable with retrospective effect by way of a notification.
Khaitan, an accused in the `3,600-crore AgustaWestland VVIP chopper scam, has challenged the legality of various provisions of the black money law. He had also challenged the I-T department’s January 22 order granting sanction to lodge a criminal complaint against him under the Act, which provides for a jail term of three to 10 years for those guilty of trying to evade tax.