CHANDIGARH, Sept. 4 -- The Punjab and Haryana high court on Wednesday allowed the Enforcement Directorate (ED) to inspect documents submitted by the Income Tax (IT) department before a Ludhiana court, in a disproportionate assets case involving former Punjab chief minister and BJP leader, Capt Amarinder Singh, and his son. The high court bench of justice Tribhuvan Dahiya dismissed pleas from the ex-CM and his son, Raninder Singh, against a Ludhiana court order that had allowed ED to access these documents. The IT department had filed criminal complaints against Amarinder and his son in 2016 in a Ludhiana court, saying the two were beneficiaries of foreign assets maintained and controlled through business entities and also of foreign bank accounts maintained in Geneva. The department had accused them of tax evasion and of allegedly amassing wealth in other countries. It was in this case that the ED had moved an application seeking inspection of files. Singh and his son had approached the high court in September 2021, challenging the lower court orders that allowed ED to access the files. Their argument was that there is an agreement with France, as per which information on income tax could only be shared with persons or authorities involved in the assessment or collection of taxes and not with any other party. The inspection of records cannot not be permitted on the ground that in Article 28 of the Convention under the "Agreement for Avoidance of Double Taxation with France" entered into between the Government of India and the French republic, there is a bar on disclosing any information received by the contracting state and it is to be treated as secret under the domestic law, they had argued. "...the information has been demanded for public dissemination; rather, it is only for carrying out an investigation against the petitioners. They have no right to object to it by alluding to the Avoidance of Double Taxation Agreement," the bench observed while dismissing the plea and asking the ED not to disseminate it publicly unless permitted in accordance with law. The court asserted that the Government of India has entered into this agreement with the French republic, whereunder the information has been handed over to the IT department. "In case disclosure of information causes any violation of terms of the agreement, including that of Article 28, it is for the department to oppose it on that ground and not for the petitioners," the court said while also taking note of the fact that the IT department has no objection to sharing the information....