Electoral Bonds: SC declines pleas seeking SIT probe into alleged quid pro between corporates and political parties

New Delhi, August 02: The Supreme Court on Friday declined a batch of petitions seeking a probe by a Special Investigation Team (SIT) into the alleged instances of quid pro quo arrangements between corporates and political parties through Electoral Bonds donations.

A bench of Chief Justice of India DY Chandrachud and Justices JB Pardiwala and Manoj Misra said it is of the considered view that the constitution of an SIT headed by a former judge of this court should not be ordered when remedies under the law governing criminal procedure are not availed.

"At the present stage, absent a recourse to remedies which are available under the law to pursue such grievances, it would be both premature - because the intervention under Article 32 must be preceded by the invocation of the normal remedies under the law and contingent upon the failure of those remedies - and inappropriate -because the intervention by this court at the present stage would postulate that the normal remedies which are available under the law are not efficacious- for this court to issue such directions," the bench said in its order.

The top court also rejected the demand to direct the authorities to recover the donations received by political parties through Electoral Bonds and to re-open their income tax assessments. It added, "Issuing a direction of that nature at the present stage would amount to a conclusion on facts which would be inappropriate..."

Advocate Prashant Bhushan appearing for one of the petitioners, told the bench that there was a 'quid pro quo' between many corporates, who purchased the bonds, and the political parties, who received the donations.

The bench, however, was reluctant to entertain the plea asking why can't the normal process of law like lodging of FIR or filing a private complaint before the concerned court be invoked concerning the claims.

The petition filed by NGOs Common Cause and the Centre for Public Interest Litigation (CPIL) had sought direction from authorities to investigate the source of funding of shell companies and loss-making companies to various political parties, as has been disclosed through the electoral bonds data.

The petition further sought direction to the authorities to recover the amounts from political parties as donated by companies to these parties as part of quid pro quo arrangements where these are found to be proceeds of crime.

It alleged that a scam worth crores of rupees is involved in the Electoral Bonds matter, which can be unravelled only through an independent investigation under the monitoring of the apex court.
Seeking SIT probe to be supervised by a retired Supreme Court judge, the petitioners said, "The investigation in this case would not only need to unravel the entire conspiracy in each instance, which would involve officers of the company, officials of the government and functionaries of political parties but also the officers concerned of agencies like the ED/IT and CBI etc., who appear to have become part of this conspiracy."

The plea alleged that data that was disclosed to the public after the top court struck down the anonymous Electoral Bonds scheme showed that the bulk of the bonds appear to have been given as quid pro quo arrangements by corporates to political parties either to secure government contracts or licenses, or to secure protection from investigations by CBI, Income Tax Department, Enforcement Directorate, or as consideration of favourable policy changes.

The Supreme Court by its February verdict had struck down the Electoral Bonds Scheme which allowed for anonymous funding to political parties, and ordered the SBI to stop issuing Electoral Bonds immediately. It had unanimously quashed the Electoral Bonds scheme as well as amendments made to the Income Tax Act and the Representation of People Act which had made the donations anonymous.