Supreme Court To Hear Plea Seeking SIT Probe Into Electoral Bonds 'Quid Pro Quo' On Monday

The Supreme Court will consider the plea for setting up a Special Investigation Team (SIT) to look into the alleged 'quid-pro-quo' arrangements under the Electoral Bonds Scheme on Monday along with other similar petitions.

Advocate Prashant Bhushan brought up the matter before the bench led by CJI DY Chandrachud, mentioning that the plea seeking SIT probe was listed for Monday. However, he sought the clubbing of another related petition on the matter which was filed and numbered much later and was listed for hearing today.

In response, the CJI assured that the entire group of related cases on the Electoral Bonds Scheme would be taken up on Monday.

" We will take the entire group on Monday" the CJI stated.

The main petition filed in April seeks the constitution of a Special Investigation Team to investigate the alleged instances of quid pro quo arrangements between corporations and political parties through Electoral Bonds donations.

The development comes as an aftermath of the Top Court's decision to strike down the Electoral Bonds Scheme as unconstitutional and violative of Article 19(1)(a) of the Constitution. The court's decision highlighted concerns about transparency and fairness and directed the State Bank of India to cease further issuance of such bonds and make a public disclosure of bond transactions since April 12, 2019. It may be noted that the Election Commission of India uploaded the Electoral Bonds data on its website on March 14 complying with the Apex Court's directions.

The petitioner contended that the data which was disclosed to the public after the Supreme 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 corporations to political parties either : (a) to secure government contracts or licenses, (b) to secure protection from investigations by CBI, Income Tax Department, Enforcement Directorate, (c) as consideration of favourable policy changes.

The petition filed by NGOs Common Cause and the Centre for Public Interest Litigation (CPIL) alleges 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 Supreme Court.

The key reliefs sought by the petitioners include

(1) court-monitored investigation by an SIT into the "instances of apparent quid pro quo between public servants, political parties, commercial organisations, companies, officials of investigation agencies and others, and other offences;

(2) direction to the authorities to investigate the source of funding of shell companies and loss-making companies to various political parties;

(3) 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 may be noted that a subsequent petition was also filed challenging the legitimacy of funds received by political parties through the Electoral Bond Scheme and seeking directions to the Union, ECI snd Central Vigilance Commission to confiscate the amounts received under the scheme by the involved political parties. Additionally, the plea seeks the formation of a committee led by a former Supreme Court judge to investigate the alleged illegal benefits provided to donors by major political parties.

The petitions will now be heard on Monday (July 22).