By Admin 
The Supreme Court has issued a notice on a petition opposing the permission of political parties to accept donations up to Rs 2000 in cash. It has been said in the petition that this is a system that encourages wrongful donations. If someone is giving cash donation worth lakhs and crores, it can also be shown as a donation of less than Rs 2000 received from many people.
The section which petitioner Khem Singh Bhati has sought to declare unconstitutional is Section 13A(d) of the Income Tax Act, 1961. The petitioner has also protested that the information about donors who donate less than Rs 2000 to political parties has also been exempted from being disclosed to the Election Commission or the Income Tax Department. It has been said in the petition that people have the right to get information about those who donate to political parties.
Apart from the Election Commission, Central Government, Central Board of Direct Taxes (CBDT), 12 political parties – BJP, Congress, DMK, CPM, TMC, BSP, Samajwadi Party, JDU, BJD, Aam Aadmi Party, National People’s Party and JMM have been made parties in the petition.
The main demands made in the petition are
- Section 13A(d) of the Income Tax Act, 1961 should be declared unconstitutional.
- The Election Commission should be asked to examine Form 24A giving details of donations of all recognized parties. The party should be asked to deposit the amount of donations in which address or PAN number is not available.
- Action should be taken to suspend or cancel the election symbol by issuing a notice under the Election Symbol Order, 1968 to the parties who do not submit the details on time.
- There should be a complete ban on political parties accepting donations in cash. This should be made a condition of registration and election symbol allotment.
The bench of Justices Vikram Nath and Sandeep Mehta issued notice to all the parties after hearing the arguments of senior advocate Vijay Hansaria, appearing for the petitioner. The case will be heard after 4 weeks.