The Supreme Court on Tuesday said that Chief Justice D.Y. Chandrachud will take a call on the listing of a petition by NGOs Common Cause and the Centre for Public Interest Litigation (CPIL) seeking direction for the constitution of a Special Investigation Team (SIT) to conduct an independent and court-monitored probe into the alleged instances of quid pro quo involving the funding of several political parties through electoral bonds by different corporate entities, including shell and loss-making companies, and the alleged consequential gains accruing to them.

Both the NGOs have said that the alleged scam amounting to crores of rupees through electoral bonds can be unravelled only through an independent probe by the SIT under the supervision of the Supreme Court.

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“Don’t worry that matter is with the CJI, Secretariat, they will be fixing a date,” said Justice Sanjiv Khanna heading a bench before which advocate Prashant Bhushan mentioned the plea for an early hearing.

The plea by the NGOs – Common Cause and the Centre for Public Interest Litigation – had sought direction to the authorities to investigate the source of funding of the shell and loss-making companies to various political parties, as has emerged from the data of the electoral bonds.

The NGOs – Common Cause and the CPIL – have sought the recovery of the amount donated to the political parties by the corporates as a part of the give and take arrangement where the donations are found to be the proceeds of crime.

The petition says that the data which has come into the public domain after it was disclosed to the Election Commission of India by the State Bank of India in pursuance to the top court’s direction reveals that the bulk of the bonds appears to have been purchased and given by certain corporates to different political parties by way of an alleged quid pro quo arrangements either to secure government contracts or licences, or to secure protection from investigations by the CBI, Income Tax Department, Enforcement Directorate; and as consideration of favourable policy changes.

“The data as published by the ECI on its website exposed how quid pro quo arrangements have potentially been made between large corporates and political parties in the last 6 years through the use of electoral bonds. The data shows private companies have paid crores of funds to political parties either as “protection money’ for protection against agencies under the central government or as a “bribe” in return for undue benefits. In some instances, it has been seen that the political parties in power at the centre or in states have apparently amended policies and/or laws to provide benefits to private corporates at the cost of public interest and the public exchequer,” states the petitions by the NGOs.

It further says that the data shows that various loss-making and shell companies were donating huge sums to political parties and these shell companies were used as conduits to launder illicit money through electoral bonds.

“In the Electoral Bond scam, some of the country’s main investigative agencies such as the CBI, Enforcement Directorate, and the Income Tax Department appear to have become accessories to corruption. Several firms which were under investigation by these agencies have donated large sums of money to the ruling party, potentially to influence outcomes of probes,” states the petition.

The petition has cited news reports regarding electoral bonds purchased by certain companies such as Megha Engineering and Infrastructures Ltd, APCO Infratech Private Limited (APCO), Future Gaming and Hotel Services, Grasim Industries, IFB Agro Limited, Infina Capital Private Ltd. (Infina), Aurobindo Pharma, Vedanta, and Bharti Airtel Limited.

The petitioner NGOs have also alleged that several pharma companies, which were under regulatory scanner for manufacturing substandard drugs, also purchased electoral bonds. The petitioner argued that such arrangements of quid pro quo are in clear violation of the Prevention of Corruption Act, 1988.

Having referred to the news reports pointing to suspected quid pro quo, the petitioner NGOs have sought a court-monitored investigation by an SIT into the “instances of apparent quid pro quo between public servants, political parties, commercial organisations, companies, officials of investigation agencies and others, and other offences as highlighted in the petition.”