Hyderabad: The Delhi High Court has directed the Election Commission to examine the complaint of MLA A. Revanth Reddy with regard to the fundraising programme of the Telangana Rashtra Samiti last year. It also directed the Election Commission to frame laws to be followed by political parties for raising funds.
Acting Chief Justice Gita Mittal and Judge C. Hari Shankar passed the orders on January 19 after hearing a writ petition filed by Mr Reddy enumerating the methods adopted by the TRS in fundraising at the party plenary in Warangal last year.
Mr Reddy’s writ said that the fundraising activities of the TRS was tantamount to misuse of power by elected representatives. He said public funds are being used by private political parties in violation of the provisions of the Prevention of Corruption Act, 1988, and the Representation of the People Act, 1951.
Mr Reddy brought to the court’s notice that in 2017, TRS ministers and public representatives collected huge sums from the public and various organisations as part of ‘Gulabi Coolie’ by doing Shramadan for a few minutes and got lakhs of rupees as wages for the sake of raising funds. He said by doing so, the TRS’ public representatives have indulged in a corrupt activity which is prohibited under the said Act and are liable to face charges.
Mr Reddy said in his petition that despite there being laws in force, public representatives are still resorting to such corrupt practices, which means that there are some lapses and lacunae in the law and he sought for a direction to be given to the Election Commission to frame new laws and guidelines in order to plug the loopholes in the system and in various acts in this regard.
