In Indian National Congress vs UOI, which came up before the Supreme Court’s Chief Justice Bench today, the counsel for the Association for Democratic Reforms, Prashant Bhushan, alleged that both the Congress and the UOI suffer from conflict of interests in the case, in the face of a clear finding by the Delhi high court that both the Congress and the BJP had received crores as funding from foreign sources, and that there is not even an iota of doubt that the Foreign Contribution (Regulation) Act, 1976 was violated by both.
Although in its judgement, the Delhi high court Division Bench had given six months time for the Government to take action under the FCRA, the Government had not moved an inch to take action against the violators; instead, the Government has been taking action against Greenpeace and Teesta Setalvad, Bhushan alleged.
He urged the Bench to list it on a particular day, and that he would not take more than 10 minutes to argue this case.
For 16 months they had not done anything, and the case cannot be prolonged further, he pleaded.
Despite Bhushan’s urging to list it on a particular day, the bench headed by CJI HL Dattu asked the Registry to list it on a non-miscellaneous day for final disposal and asked the parties to complete their pleadings as early as possible.
Kapil Sibal represented the Congress party.