High court allows ED to inspect Capt Amarinder Singh’s I-T documents in foreign assets probe

CHANDIGARH: The Punjab and Haryana high court has cleared the way for the Enforcement Directorate (ED) to inspect documents held by the Income Tax (I-T) department for a probe into alleged undisclosed foreign assets of former Punjab chief minister Capt Amarinder Singh and his son, Raninder Singh.Dismissing their petition, Justice Tribhuvan Dahiya ruled that the ED can access records related to criminal complaints against the two, but the information cannot be publicly disclosed without permission. The court's decision allows the ED to proceed with its investigation under the Foreign Exchange Management Act (FEMA), 1999."They have no right to object to it by alluding to the avoidance of the Double Taxation Agreement.

It is the Govt of India which has entered into this agreement with the French Republic, whereunder the information was handed over to the I-T department. In case disclosure of information causes any violation of terms of the agreement, including that of Article 28, it is for the department to oppose it on that ground and not for the petitioners.

And the former has no objection to sharing the information for investigation, nor can such an objection be raised on its behalf," the high court observed.

Capt Amarinder and Raninder Singh had challenged earlier orders from a Ludhiana magistrate and a revisional court that permitted the ED to access the documents. The documents, received from French authorities under India's Double Taxation Avoidance Agreement (DTAA) with France, were used by the I-T department to initiate proceedings against the two in 2016.The I-T department's complaints allege that Amarinder Singh was the beneficiary of foreign bank accounts and assets linked to the Jacaranda Trust.

Similar allegations were made against Raninder Singh. The documents also allegedly link the family to offshore business entities and an HSBC account in Geneva, as well as a property in Dubai — P29, Marina Mansions.The Ludhiana magistrate allowed the ED to inspect the records in Sept 2020, a decision later upheld in revision by additional sessions Judge in 2021.Aggrieved, Amarinder and Raninder approached the high court, arguing that permitting the ED to inspect these documents violated India's DTAA with France, claiming the information was confidential and could not be shared with "strangers" such as the ED.Dismissing their plea, the high court observed that there is no restriction on the ED to access the information/documents placed on record before the magistrate by the I-T department for investigation. Therefore, it cannot be said that the ED is trying to procure the documents by circumventing the agreement in question, the court said."It is not a case that the information has been demanded for public dissemination; rather, it is only for carrying out an investigation against the petitioners," held the court.MSID:: 123678790 413 |