New Delhi, Aug 17 (Express News Service): The Supreme Court on Tuesday accepted to hear an application filed by the government to recall its own order forming a Special Investigation Team (SIT) with two retired judges at the helm to investigate black money stashed abroad.

A three-judge Bench of Justices Altamas Kabir, Cyriac Joseph and S S Nijjar presided over a short hearing in which Attorney General G E Vahanvati told the court that he is ready to argue the “maintainability” of the application that accuses the apex court of judicial overreach into executive functions by setting up an SIT.

The government has also taken strong exception to the Supreme Court appointing the Director, Research and Analysis Wing, as part of the SIT. The order effectively asks the intelligence chief to report to the SIT, which will in turn report to the Supreme Court.

The government challenged the order which has the team report back to the Supreme Court on the progress made on all black money cases, including the one underway against Pune stud farm owner Hasan Ali Khan.

The Centre’s petition primarily focuses on the passages in the July 5 order of a Bench of Justices Sudershan Reddy (since retired) and S S Nijjar which portrays a picture that the “Union of India has been unable to answer any of the questions regarding its past actions”.

After counsel for Citizen India, a social group represented by senior advocate Anil Divan, sought an early hearing, the Bench fixed the hearing for August 24.