New Delhi: The Delhi High Court on Wednesday said that proper auditing of accounts of political parties was imperative and critical for free and fair elections as they dealt in large sums of public money.
A high court bench of justices S Muralidhar and Vibhu Bakhru, said that this would also infuse transparency and accountability in functioning of these parties. The bench said that most of the public funds spent by political parties to fight elections are unaccounted. It called for a slew of legislative measures to effectively check the influence of such money on the electoral process.
The order came on a plea by the Indian National Congress (INC) for exemption from paying income tax for the assessment year 1994-95.
The INC had challenged an Income Tax Appellate Tribunal order which had held that the accounts of the assesses for 1994-95 were incomplete and therefore, the exemption under the Act was not available to it. (ANI)