PIL In Supreme Court Seeks Confiscation Of Benami Properties, Black Money & Disproportionate Assets

A PIL has been filed in the Supreme Court seeking directions to the centre to ascertain the feasibility of confiscating benami properties, disproportionate assets and black money.

Advocate Ashwani Kumar Upadhyay has filed the plea which also seeks awarding of life imprisonment in offences relating to bribery, black money, benami property disproportionate assets, tax evasion and money laundering.

The plea states that the cause of action accrued on December 1, 2020 when corruption watchdog Transparency International put india at rank 80 in the Corruption Perception Index.

"Due to weak and ineffective anti-corruption laws, India has never been ranked even among top 50 in Corruption Perception Index but Centre has not strengthened them to weed-out the menace of corruption, which brazenly offends rule of law as well as right to life liberty dignity guaranteed under Articles 14 and 21."

- Plea in SC

Further to this, the plea states that Right to Live Happily and with dignity is guaranteed under Article 21 of the Constitution but due to massive corruption, our ranking in Happiness index is very low.

Putting forth a solution oriented approach, the plea states that as the total budget of Centre, States and local bodies is around 70 lac crores, however, "due to massive corruption in every department, around 10 per cent of the budget becomes black money." In this context, the PIL avers that the Centre can save this huge public money by recalling currency above Rs. 100, restricting cash transaction above Rs. 5000, linking assets above Rs. 50,000 with AADHAAR, confiscating 100% black money, benami property, disproportionate assets and awarding life imprisonment to looters. 

It is highlighted by the petitioner that due to weak and ineffective anti-corruption laws, even one district is not free from land mafias, drug and liquor mafias, mining mafias, medicine-hospital mafias, transfer-posting mafias, betting mafias, tender mafias, hawala mafias, school and coaching mafias, illegal immigration mafias, conversion mafias, superstition-black magic mafias and white-collar political mafias, who divide our society and country on the basis of religion race caste sex and place of birth.

In this background, Upadhyay contends that the injury caused to people is extremely large because corruption is insidious plague, having wide range of corrosive effects on society.

Upadhyay has alternatively sought directions to the Law Commission of India and/or Lokpal to examine and publish the best anti-corruption laws of the world, particularly the most effective provisions related to bribery, black money, benami property, disproportionate assets, tax evasion, money laundering, profiteering, grain hoarding, food adulteration, human-drug trafficking, black marketing, cheating, forgery, criminal breach of trust, falsification of accounts, benami transactions and fraud including corporate fraud and forensic fraud.