Supreme Court rejects SIT probe into electoral bond scheme
News Bureau August 2,2024
There will be no SIT investigation of the electoral bond scheme. The Supreme Court rejected this demand. The Supreme Court rejected the petitions demanding a court-monitored SIT investigation into the alleged transactions between companies and political parties in the purchase of electoral bonds.
The court said, ‘It would be premature and inappropriate for the court to do so.’ The court said that when the remedies available under the general law governing the criminal legal process have not been used, it would be premature and inappropriate to order an investigation under the supervision of a retired judge.
The court also dismissed petitions seeking directions to authorities to recover donations received by political parties through electoral bonds and to reopen their income tax assessments. The court said that these measures are linked to the exercise of statutory functions by the authorities under the Income Tax Act. Issuing any such direction by the court at this stage would mean giving a conclusive opinion on the disputed facts.
According to a Live Law report, a bench of Chief Justice D.Y. Chandrachud and Justices J.B. Pardiwala and Manoj Mishra heard four petitions. One of these was jointly filed by NGOs Common Cause and Center for Public Interest Litigation, while the other three were filed by Dr. Khem Singh Bhatti, Sudeep Narayan Tamankar and Jai Prakash Sharma.
Earlier in February, the Supreme Court had rejected the electoral bond scheme of the Narendra Modi government. The scheme was said to be an anonymous political funding. A five-judge Constitution bench headed by Chief Justice of India DY Chandrachud had said, “It is important for a voter to be aware of the funding received by a political party in order to exercise his freedom to vote effectively.”
Considering the scheme as a violation of the constitutional right to freedom of expression and right to information, the court did not agree with the Centre’s argument that its objective was to bring transparency and curb black money in political funding.
