3 min readNew DelhiFeb 27, 2026 02:11 AM ISTThe bench agreed to examine the matter and issued notice.THE SUPREME Court on Thursday sought the response of the Centre and the Election Commission to a PIL seeking a ceiling on the money that can be spent by political parties during elections.A bench of Chief Justice of India Surya Kant and Justices Joymalya Bagchi and Vipul M Pancholi issued notice on the plea by NGO Centre for Public Interest Litigation.Appearing for the petitioner, Advocate Prashant Bhushan said the plea raises an issue which strikes at the heart of the democratic process. He said today, under the law, there is a limit on the expenditure of individual candidates though that limit is unfortunately not enforced very often. Also, there is no limit on spending by parties, he said.Pointing to similar situations in other jurisdictions, Justice Bagchi said: “You see the US elections. There are limits to spending by party. The friends of candidate A… let’s say an Indian American PAC (Political Action Committee) will fund you, where is the limit? Your political party may be barred, but friends of Mr Bhushan, they will fund…”The judge said if the court puts an embargo, there will be complaints that it affects the freedom of expression.“Say we put the embargo that no funding beyond x limit. You will come before us, say Article 19(1)(a) – freedom of expression, expression through material support. How will we control that,” the judge asked.Bhushan said Parliament advisedly put a restriction on candidates.“You want it to be enlarged to party,” said Justice Bagchi, asking if that will be sufficient.Story continues below this adBhushan submitted that he is not saying it will be sufficient. “What I am saying is, of course, if I spend money on behalf of a candidate, then normally it is calculated in his election expenditure. But if a political party spends, it is not calculated and unfortunately, there is no limit on a political party as a whole, that this is the maximum you can spend in a year, and there is no limit qua every election or qua candidates in every election.”The counsel said in the electoral bonds case, the SC said, “This is a scourge, a huge problem. This is skewing our electoral democracy because there is unbridled use of money power by political parties in elections etc and this needs to be curbed.”The bench agreed to examine the matter and issued notice. © The Indian Express Pvt LtdTags:Election Commissionsupreme court