The Supreme Court on Friday sought a response from the Centre, Election Commission and the Law Commission on a plea that there should be a statutory regulation to ensure registered political parties abide by the principles of “secularism, transparency, democracy”, besides upholding the nation’s sovereignty.
A bench of Justices Surya Kant and Joymalya Bagchi issued notices to the respondents on a PIL filed by advocate Ashwini Kumar Upadhyay, who alleged that such mandatory registration was required to weed out not only the evils of casteism and communalism, but also black money which some outfits were using under the cloak of being a political party.
According to the petitioner, he filed the PIL on July 13, when income tax authorities raided the offices of the Indian Social Party and the Yuva Bharat Atma Nirbhar Dal and reportedly recovered ₹500 crore of black money. Quoting a newspaper report, the PIL alleged that both political parties were formed to
accept donations in cash through the hawala route and return money through cheques after deducting 20 per cent commission.
“The injury to the citizens is large because around 90 per cent of parties are formed to convert black money into white...,” the petition said.