Lok Sabha Election 2024 Updates

The petition has been filed jointly by Common Cause and Centre for Public Interest Litigation (petitioners), both registered societies.

The plea states that an SIT probe is required to unravel alleged conspiracies and scams carried out through the electoral bonds scheme, which enabled anonymous donations to political parties.

In this regard, the petitioners have raised the following concerns.

1. Electoral bond data shows that the bulk of the bonds appear to have been given as quid pro quo arrangements by corporates to political parties. This has been done by donors for:

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  getting contracts/ licences/ leases/ clearances/ approvals worth thousands and sometimes lakhs of crores and other benefits from the governments or authorities controlled by the governments which were in turn controlled by the political parties that received those bonds;

  
  


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  securing "protection" to avoid or stall proceedings initiated by the Enforcement Directorate (ED), the Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) or the Income Tax (IT) Department or to get relaxations for other regulators such as the drug controller;

  
  


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  favourable policy changes.

  
  

2. Political donations through electoral bonds appear to have influenced contracts worth lakhs of crores. Regulatory inaction by agencies (allegedly in exchange for political donations through electoral bonds) also appears to have allowed substandard or dangerous drugs to be sold in the market, endangering the lives of millions of people in the country.

3. In several cases, the donations appear to have been made in blatant violation of Section 182(1) of the Companies Act which governs contributions by companies to political parties. This provision prohibits any government company or any company that is less than three years old from making contributions to political parties. Yet electoral bonds data disclosed that at least twenty companies bought electoral bonds within three years of their incorporation. Data has further shown that various loss-making companies and shell companies were donating huge sums to political parties through electoral bonds, especially to the ruling party. All of this raises concerns about the mushrooming of shell companies as conduits to launder illicit money to curry favour with ruling political parties.