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Individual grievances of this nature would have to be pursued on the basis of remedies available under law, top court has said
The Supreme Court of India has today refused to entertain a plea seeking SIT probe into the donations made under the Electoral Bonds Scheme.
A CJI DY Chandrachud led bench has said that ordering a SIT "at the present stage, would be premature and inappropriate for this court, premature because the intervention of this court must be proceeded on failure of remedies under law, and inappropriate because the intervention at the present stage would postulate that the normal remedies available under law would not be efficacious".
Noting that the petitions before it were founded on assumptions that there was a quid pro quo where the date of donations were proximate to award of a contract and change in policy and there was an involvement of certain agencies due to which the investigation would not be fair, the bench also comprising Justices JB Pardiwala and Manoj Misra has said, "These are assumptions at the present stage and require the court to embark upon a roving enquiry into the purchase of electoral bonds and the arrangements in the nature of quid pro quo."
The top court has further said that individual grievances of this nature would have to be pursued on the basis of remedies available under law and if there is a refusal to investigate, recourse can be taken through appropriate remedies under the law governing criminal procedure or Article 226 of the Constitution of India.
Instant plea sought a probe by a Special Investigation Team into alleged pay offs and quid pro quo arrangements between the corporates and the governments in receiving thousand of crores as donations to political parties through Electoral Bonds Scheme.
The PIL filed jointly by NGOs 'Common Cause' and 'Centre for Public Interest Litigation' contended that the electoral bond data showed that the bulk of the bonds appears to have been given as quid pro quo arrangements by corporates to political parties for 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.
The plea said that this scam needs to be investigated by a Special Investigation Team (SIT) of sitting/retired officers of impeccable integrity chosen by this court and working under the supervision of a retired judge of this court.
It also stated that electoral bonds were given in close proximity to action by agencies like the ED/IT/CBI raising suspicion of it being “protection” money to avoid or stall action by or in exchange for regulatory inaction by various regulators like the drug controller etc. The plea also aimed that electoral bonds were given as a consideration for favourable policy changes.
On February 15 this year, the Supreme Court held the 2018 Electoral Bonds Scheme to be unconstitutional saying it was violative of Article 19(1) (a) of the Constitution of India.
CJI Chandrachud had also observed that information on funding of political parties is important for effective democracy as this could lead to a quid pro quo situation where funders are given favours through various means like policy changes etc.
Case Title: Common Cause vs. Union of India
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