SC Overturns Delhi HC Order, Allows Prosecution Of AgustaWestland Accused Gautam Khaitan 

In a major breakthrough for the Union Government, the Supreme Court (SC) on Tuesday (21 May) set aside the Delhi High Court's order which had restrained the government from applying the stringent Black Money Act, 2016 retrospectively, reports Financial Express.

This marks immediate significance for the government given the aforementioned order from the Delhi High Court had held back the government and the Income Tax department from proceeding in a case against advocate Gautam Khaitan who is one of the accused in the infamous AugustaWestland VVIP chopper scam.

Khaitan had convinced the Delhi High Court that the black money law which had been pressed against him in the AugustaWestland case could not be allowed to operate with retrospective effect from July 2015. This granted Khaitan protection from litigations under the punitive provisions of the black money law that the incumbent government had introduced.

The Income Tax department is pursuing a case against Khaitan for evading taxes on income generated from undisclosed foreign assets which according to Khaitan ceased to exist before the black money law came into force.

The vacation bench headed by Justice Arun Mishra has sought a response from Khaitan within six weeks.