Subramanian Swamy considered by Hon'ble SC and referred to Govt. for
action: (The full text of the WP No. 176 of 2009 is at
There are four ways by which the names and accounts illegally held abroad by Indian citizens can be ascertained and acted on.
(1) The First Method is for the CBI/ED to register an FIR , obtain a Letter of Request u/s 166A of the Criminal Procedure Code (1973) from a designated Court, and then (making use of the Swiss Law On International Judicial Assistance in Criminal Matters seek Swiss cooperation) proceed to get Swiss cooperation which the Swiss authorities will be obliged to facilitate. This can be done whenever there is prima facie evidence of any person, institution or company maintaining a secret and illegal account in Switzerland. The Swiss Federation Act on the Restitution of Assets of Politically Exposed Persons obtained by Unlawful Means (RIAA) governs the freezing, forfeiture and restitution of the assets of politically exposed persons (PEPs) or their close associates in cases where a request for mutual assistance in criminal matters cannot succeed due to the failure of the judicial system in the requesting state. This Act has been in force since 1 February 2011.
(2)The Second Method is the German/French method which these two Governments used to obtain records of a particular bank by offering monetary inducements to willing senior bank officials . This is what these two countries did with Bank of Lichtenstein and the HSBC in Geneva.
(3)The Third Method is the US method used by the US authorities against the Washington D.C. based branch offices of the Union Bank of Switzerland and Credit Suisse Thereby the US obtained the names of over 5000 US citizens who had illegally opened bank accounts in these banks. When these banks had claimed secrecy as a business principle, the US authorities simply arrested the Washington D.C. based senior officers of these two banks. Thereafter, the bank headquarter office gave in and shared the desired information. India too has these Swiss bank branch offices in Mumbai, and this method can be pressed into service for this purpose.
(4)The Fourth Method is the method suggested by eminent jurist and Senior Advocate, Fali S. Nariman in his Rajya Sabha speeches and op ed articles in newspapers, viz., advocating invoking the Resolution of the UN Convention against Corruption adopted by the UN General Assembly in 2005 and ratified by India in 2011.
This requires that India’s Parliament pass a law( or as a first step the President of India issues an Ordinance) to nationalise all bank accounts of Indian citizens in the 90 odd nations practising secret and numbered account banking. Thereafter bilateral discussions with each of these countries can take place for getting hold of these accounts. Of these accounts, those proven by these account holders to be legitimate would then be returned to these holders. The rest become the property of the Indian nation; and can be repatriated. 6.These are the effective ways of obtaining the estimated $ 1. 50 trillion black money stashed away abroad by Indian citizens. The present measures of the Union of India such as using amended DTAA or threat of severe punishment by enacting new laws such as presently proposed Bill No.84 of 2015 introduced in the Lok Sabha, are completely ineffective in recovering the black money stock illegally held abroad, and thus are only of diversionary value.