The Delhi High Court on Wednesday dismissed a plea seeking a court-monitored investigation into allegations of quid pro quo and corruption in political donations through electoral bonds, citing a lack of substantive evidence. The bench, comprising Chief Justice D K Upadhyaya and Justice Tushar Rao Gedela, challenged the petitioner’s reliance on media reports as the basis for the allegations.
During the hearing, the justices questioned the credibility and reliability of newspaper reports as the sole material supporting the plea. “In this petition, what is the material?… On what basis? The newspaper reports, that’s all,” remarked the bench, underscoring the insufficiency of evidence presented.
The court highlighted that a directive for a preliminary inquiry or prosecution could only be issued if there were concrete materials that prima facie substantiated the allegations. “There is no material except that there is a list of donors, that’s all,” the court noted, indicating that the evidence was not compelling enough to warrant a detailed investigation.
The petitioner, Sudip Narayan Tamankar, an activist, had requested a court-monitored investigation by the CBI into his complaints about the electoral bonds scheme, which was previously struck down by a Supreme Court judgment on February 15, 2024. The scheme, introduced by the BJP government in 2018, aimed to enhance transparency in political funding by replacing cash donations with bonds purchased anonymously by donors.
Despite the Supreme Court’s earlier decision to scrap the scheme, Tamankar pursued further legal action, alleging opaque funding arrangements between corporations and political parties. However, the CBI counsel argued that the allegations were vague and the petitioner failed to demonstrate the maintainability of his plea.
