It would certainly be an exaggeration to suggest that the advance of the Rule of Law in India hinges on the jurisprudence around the sealed envelope. And yet when one heard the discussion on television the other day, between the Attorney General of India, Mukul Rohtagi, and the TV anchor, Karan Thapar, on whether the decision by the government of India to give the names of those with black money accounts in Swiss banks to the Supreme Court violated the Double Tax Avoidance Agreement (DTAA) with France, one would be forgiven if one believed that this was indeed the case. Should the government of India have handed over to the Supreme Court of India the sealed envelope with the 627 names? Was this action a violation of the DTAA with France or was it consistent with the terms of the agreement? Are the arguments being advanced by legal officers pragmatic ones, i.e., there will be damaging international repercussions; or ones of principle, i.e., it was given to our Supreme Court and hence was concerned with our sovereignty? Can India be trusted as a country where the rule of law prevails? In the sealed envelope lie many issues of our constitutional democracy. Open it we must Listening carefully to the TV discussion, one discerned two possible lines of inquiry. The first is obviously legal where questions relating to the Supreme Courts instruction and the government’s reluctant compliance with it, in the light of Indias treaty obligations, need to be examined in terms of the rule of law. The other, interestingly, is cultural where the many meanings of the sealed envelope, in our public discourse, needs detailing. Let me begin with the legal dimension.For a public discussion, there are four substantive aspects of the legal case that need to be flagged. The first concerns the jurisdiction of the Supreme Court of India. While there are many fine issues of the law that will be debated by scholars and practitioners of international law, concerning treaty obligations and international bodies which have the authority to adjudicate over them, we must not lose sight of the single issue at stake here of the extent