On July 19, 2024, Chief Justice of India D.Y. Chandrachud announced that a petition to establish a Special Investigation Team to look into every instance of quid pro quo, corruption, and kickbacks uncovered by disclosing electoral bond details would be heard on July 22.
Common Cause and the Centre for Public Interest Litigation, represented by attorneys Prashant Bhushan, Neha Rathi, and Cheryl D’Souza, submitted the petition.
Mr. Bhushan was notified at an oral mention by the Chief Justice. Some of the nation’s top investigative agencies, including the Income Tax Department, Enforcement Directorate, and CBI, “appear to have become accessories to corruption,” according to the plea.
According to the petition, a number of companies that these authorities were looking into have made sizable financial donations to the ruling party, possibly with the intention of influencing the results of these investigations.
“Thus, the investigation, in this case, would not only need to unravel the entire conspiracy in each instance, which would involve officers of the company, officials of the government, and functionaries of political parties but also the officers concerned of agencies like the ED/IT and CBI etc., who appear to have become part of this conspiracy,” it has submitted.
The petition has stated that the information released indicates that the majority of the bonds appear to have been given as quid pro quo arrangements by corporates to political parties, citing reports and significant data mining carried out by the news agency and other media sites.
“Though these apparent payoffs amount to several thousand crores, they appear to have influenced contracts worth lakhs of crores and regulatory inaction by agencies worth thousands of crores and also appear to have allowed substandard or dangerous drugs to be sold in the market, endangering the lives of millions of people in the country. That is why the electoral bonds scam has been called by many astute observers as the largest scam in India so far, and perhaps in the world,” the petition has said.
