Centre moves SC for review, recall of its order in black money

NEW DELHI: The Centre on Friday approached the Supreme Court seeking review and recall of its order for setting up a Special Investigation Team (SIT) comprising its retired judges to take over the probe of all black money cases including that of Pune stud farm owner Hassan Ali Khan.

The government has sought a review as well as complete recall of the order in which it has also been pulled up for the "laggardly pace" in investigations into the issue of black money stashed abroad.

Sources said the decision to avail the remedy of recalling the order was taken as it would give the Centre a chance to advance its arguments in an open court. The review petitions are considered in chamber without the presence of even the counsel.

They said a separate application for recalling the July 4 order has been filed in which the Centre has contended that a bench of Justices B Sudershan Reddy (since retired) and S S Nijjar had passed the directions without "completely" hearing its stand.

The Centre has submitted that the arguments of then solicitor general Gopal Subramanium has not been considered completely by the Bench which ignored the steps taken for probing and monitoring the investigation into the issue of black money.