The Supreme Court on Friday refused to set up a Special Investigation Team to probe alleged instances of quid pro quo arrangements through electoral bonds, ANI reported.

The court said it would be premature and inappropriate to do so when the ordinary methods of seeking legal recourse have not yet been invoked.

A three-judge bench headed by Chief Justice DY Chandrachud also refused to direct authorities to recover funds that political parties had received through electoral bonds, or to reopen their income tax assessments, Live Law reported.

The Supreme Court in February struck down the electoral bonds scheme as unconstitutional, holding that it violated the right to information, freedom of speech and could lead to quid pro quo arrangements between donors and political parties.

More than two months later, four petitions were filed in the court demanding that a Special Investigation Team supervised by a retired Supreme Court judge should look into alleged quid pro quo arrangements between corporations, political parties and government agencies based on the electoral bonds data that was made public.

The bench headed by Chandrachud, however, held on Friday that the petitions were based on the assumption that an element of quid pro quo would exist if the date when electoral bonds were bought “was in proximity to the award of a contract or a change in policy”, Live Law reported.

The court said that the petitioners had also assumed that officials of investigating agencies were involved in illegal acts, because of which a normal investigation would not be fair.

In this backdrop, the petitions would require the court to carry out a “roving enquiry” into such arrangements, the bench observed, according to Live Law.

“Individual grievances of this nature with regard to the presence or absence of a quid pro quo would have to be pursued on the basis of the remedies available under the law,” the court said. “Likewise, where there is a refusal to investigate or a closure report has been filed, recourse can be taken to appropriate remedies under the law governing the criminal procedure or under Article 226 of the Constitution.”

The Supreme Court also held that the question of whether to reopen income tax assessments fell under the jurisdiction of the tax authorities. Passing such an order at this stage “would amount to a conclusion on facts which would be inappropriate”, the court said.

What were electoral bonds?

Electoral bonds were monetary instruments that citizens or corporate groups could buy from the State Bank of India and give to a political party, which would then redeem them. The scheme was introduced by the Bharatiya Janata Party government in January 2018.

The entire process was anonymous as buyers were not required to declare their purchase of these interest-free bonds and political parties did not need to show the source of the money. The Centre, however, had access to information about the donors as it controls the State Bank of India.

The State Bank of India was authorised to issue and encash electoral bonds through 29 authorised branches.

Arguments of the petitioners

One of the petitions seeking a Special Investigation Team was filed jointly by non-governmental organisations Common Cause and the Centre for Public Interest Litigation. The other three petitions were filed by Khem Singh Bhatti, Sudip Narayan Tamankar and Jai Prakash Sharma.

The petitioners contended that the analysis of the data has shown that bulk of the bonds have been given as quid pro quo arrangements by corporations to political parties.

The petitioners said that these arrangements are in clear violation of the Prevention of Corruption Act, 1988, specifically the offences pertaining to commercial organisations bribing a public servant and influencing them by illegal means.

The petition by Common Cause and Centre for Public Interest Litigation named companies such as Megha Engineering and Infrastructures Limited, Future Gaming and Hotel Services PR, Grasim Industries, Vedanta, IFB Agro Limited and Bharti Airtel Limited, among others, and alleged that they donated money as part of quid pro quo arrangements.

An analysis of electoral bond data revealed that the ruling BJP had received bulk of the donations made through the anonymous scheme.

Read more analysis on this topic by Project Electoral Bond, a collaborative project involving Scroll, The News Minute, Newslaundry and freelance journalists.