On January 29, this year the court had passed an order recording the stance of the Attorney General of India that the government had decided to obey the court orders.

The order stated, "In other words the stance of the Union of India is to carry out the court orders as they stand in letter and spirit."

During proceedings in the Indian Bank scam case today the amicus curiae Anil Diwan told the Court, since the new government has come to power, it was imperative that its responseregarding the action taken to implement the Court's directions in the hawala case be ascertained.

Diwan said, Prime Minister Atal Bihari Vajpayee as an Opposition leader had repeatedly demanded quick action on the judgement.

"The court could then consider whether and if so, what appropriate directions were necessary from time to time to oversee the progress of investigations in the Indian Bank scam as till date not a single powerful politician or any senior bureaucrat (apart from Indian Bank officers) has been the subject matter of either an FIR or a preliminary inquiry," Diwan submitted.

He said the Court could also consider whether directions should be given to an independent body to be assisted by proper accountants and auditors to have access to all bank records and CBI probes and make a preliminary report to the Court in relation to important accounts of friends, relations or persons connected with the powerful politicians.

Diwan said some of these accounts had already been specified in adocument he had circulated to the court which had now been admitted by the government as being an internal note of the banking division of the RBI.

The Solicitor General Santhosh Hegde appearing for the government claimed that the note was confidential and cannot be brought into the public domain.