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Supreme Court rejects pleas seeking SIT probe into electoral bonds scheme
SC rejects pleas seeking probe into election financing via electoral bonds
Supreme Court on Friday turned down petitions demanding a probe by a special investigation team (SIT) under judicial supervision into an alleged scam in electoral financing using electoral bonds (EBs). The top court scrapped the scheme on February 15.
A public interest litigation (PIL) filed by two non-governmental organisations (NGO) alleged an "apparent quid pro quo" between political parties, corporations, and investigative agencies.
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The plea dubbed the electoral bonds scheme as a “scam”, thereby seeking a direction to authorities to investigate the source of funding of "shell companies and loss-making companies which made donations to various political parties, as has been disclosed by the data released by the Election Commission (EC).
On February 15, the Supreme Court struck down the electoral bonds scheme, terming it “unconstitutional”. The five-judge apex court constitution bench headed by Chief Justice DY Chandrachud had said that the anonymous electoral bonds scheme is “violative of the right to information under Article 19(1)(a).”
The court had said that political parties are relevant units in the electoral process and information about funding of political parties is essential for electoral choices.
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The petition stated,"The electoral bond scam has a money trail unlike the 2G scam or the coal scam, where allocations of spectrum and coal mining leases were arbitrarily made, but there was no evidence of a money trail. Yet this court ordered court-monitored investigations in both those cases, appointed special public prosecutors and formed special courts to deal with those cases."
The Electoral Bonds were introduced in 2018 and pitched as an alternative to cash donations made to political parties as part of efforts to bring in transparency in political funding.
The plea alleged several firms which were under investigation by agencies have donated large sums of money to the ruling party, to potentially influence the outcome of probes.
