Kathmandu, January 26:

The Supreme Court today issued show cause notices to different government authorities demanding reasons on why the government introduced the Voluntary Declaration of Income Source (VDIS) scheme.

A single bench of Justice Prem Sharma issued the order following an initial hearing in the case against the scheme today. The bench called on the government authorities — Office of the Prime Minister and the Cabinet, Legislature-Parliament, Ministry of Law, Justice and Constituent Assembly Affairs, Ministry of Finance and the Speaker of the parliament — to attend the apex court on January 26 for a hearing on whether or not to issue a stay order against the scheme as demanded by the petitioner.

The bench also put the case in priority, considering the serious nature of the case.

Stating that the scheme was introduced with the intention of legalising illegally amassed money, advocate Kamalesh Dwivedi had lodged a petition demanding the apex court order to direct the government to take action against the persons earning money through illegal means. The petitioner claimed that the government introduced the scheme through Financial Ordinance 2008 and had given clean chits to many corrupt people by giving them an opportunity to legalise their illegally earned money. The petitioner has asked asked the SC to quash the ordinance.