SC Questions Anonymous Political Donations Below ₹2,000

New Delhi: The Supreme Court on Monday sought responses from the Centre and others on a plea challenging the validity of a provision in the Income Tax Act that allows political parties to receive “anonymous” cash donations below ₹2,000.

A bench of Justices Vikram Nath and Sandeep Mehta issued notices to the Centre, the Election Commission, and other respondents, seeking their replies on the petition. The plea also seeks a direction to the poll panel to make it mandatory, as a condition for registering a political party and allotting an election symbol, that no political party should receive any amount in cash.

The court said the matter will be listed for hearing after four weeks.

The bench initially questioned Senior Advocate Vijay Hansaria, appearing for petitioner Khem Singh Bhati along with advocate Sneha Kalita, on why the petitioners had not first approached the high court. “Let the high court consider this,” the bench remarked.

Hansaria said the issue concerns all political parties and their funding across the country. The Supreme Court then agreed to hear the plea and issued notices to the Centre, the Election Commission, and several major political parties, including the BJP and the Congress.

The plea argues that the lack of transparency in allowing undisclosed cash donations undermines the purity of the electoral process, depriving voters of crucial information about the source and motives of political funding. This, it contends, prevents citizens from making a rational and fully informed choice while voting.

It seeks to strike down Clause (d) of Section 13A of the Income-Tax Act, 1961, as unconstitutional, and cites the Supreme Court’s 2024 judgment scrapping the electoral bonds scheme.

“The petitioner seeks a direction that political parties must disclose the name and full particulars of every person contributing any amount, and that no amount should be received in cash to ensure transparency in political funding,” the plea states.