'All Speculation, No Concrete Material': Delhi High Court On PIL For CBI Probe Into Corruption Via Electoral Bonds

The Delhi High Court on Wednesday orally remarked that the allegations raised in the PIL seeking a court monitored CBI probe into the instances of “quid pro quo and corruption” by way of donations made through electoral bonds by individuals or companies to various political parties were “all speculation” and were based on “no concrete material”. To this, the CJ orally said: “You have made a complaint which is based on the information put up on the Election Commission of India's portal, and some correlation done by the newspapers as to who paid the amount, who purchased the bonds in relation to some kind of quid pro quo. As per Tamankar, the electoral bond scheme created an “opaque electoral funding veil” for quid pro quo arrangements between corporate entities and the political parties. It is his case that after the disclosure of the electoral bond information pursuant to Supreme Court ruling, it came to light that various donations would need thorough investigation as the same indicate “corruption and bribery.” The plea says that Tamankar collated publicly available information and filed a detailed complaint to the CBI on April 18 seeking an investigation into the alleged corruption disclosed in the electoral bond data.