Seize, probe electoral bond funds: PIL in Supreme Court

New Delhi, July 6

Almost five months after the Supreme Court struck down the electoral bonds scheme launched in 2018, a PIL has urged it to issue directions to confiscate donations received by political parties through electoral bonds.

Petitioner Khem Singh Bhati demanded that a committee headed by a former Supreme Court judge should be constituted to investigate alleged quid pro quo between donors and the public authorities at the instance of political parties.

Alternatively, Singh wanted the top court to direct the Income-Tax Department to reopen assessment of all the beneficiary political parties from the financial year 2018-19 to 2023-24 and disallow the exemptions of income tax claimed by them under Section 13A of the Income Tax Act. He demanded that income tax should be levied on the amounts received by them through electoral bonds along with interest and penalty.