2 NGOs File Petition in SC, Seek SIT Probe Into Alleged ‘Quid Pro Quo’ in Electoral Bond Scheme

New Delhi: Two public interest NGOs on Wednesday filed a petition in the Supreme Court, alleging ‘quid pro quo’ in the electoral bond scheme and demanding a probe into it by an SC-monitored SIT (special investigation team). The opaque and anonymous electoral bond scheme was recently struck down by the apex court as unconstitutional.

The petition, filed by Common Cause and Centre for Public Interest Litigation, has raised concerns regarding the electoral bond (EB) data put up on the Election Commission’s website, as directed by the Supreme Court, alleging the bulk of the EBs appear to have been quid pro quo deals among corporate donors and political parties in exchange for getting contracts, licences, leases, clearances, approvals “worth thousands some times lakhs of crores” from governments or authorities under governments “that were in turn controlled by political parties who received the bonds,” says a report by Bar & Bench.

According to data by State Bank of India uploaded on the EC’s website, the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) encashed the biggest kitty (more than 50%) of EBs worth Rs 8,251 crore, followed distantly by Congress and Trinamool Congress at Rs 1,952 crore and Rs 1,705 crore.

The petition by the two NGOs also alleged that some corporate donors secure "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” and for seeking “favourable changes” in policies, the Bar & Bench report said.

Flagging violation of the Companies Act as some companies were newly registered, the petition pointed out that 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.”

In addition, several loss-making companies had donated more than their turnover, mainly to the ruling BJP, it alleged, pointing out that the EBS had a “money trail unlike the 2G scam or the coal scam cases where the Supreme Court had called for court-monitored probes despite no money trail.”

The petition has been filed through advocate Prashant Bhushan and drawn by advocates Neha Rathi and Kajal Giri.

Recall that two months ago, the country’s top court had struck down the multi-crore anonymous fund-filled EB scheme, with a Chief Justice DY Chandrachud-led Constitution bench, ruling that it was “unconstitutional”.

The court had also held that “unlimited political funding by corporates” was violative of the fundamental right to free and fair elections and, therefore, manifestly arbitrary under Article14 of the Constitution. It had ordered an immediate stop to the sale of EBs and also struck down the corresponding amendments made by the Narendra Modi government through the Finance Bill, 2017.