Supreme Court To Hear Pleas Challenging Electoral Bond Scheme Today — Details

The SC had refused to grant an interim stay on the 2018 Electoral Bonds Scheme and sought responses from the Centre and the ECI on an interim application seeking a stay on the Electoral Bond Scheme.

The apex court had in April 2019 declined to stay the Centre's Electoral Bond Scheme 2018

Source : Getty Images

New Delhi: The Supreme Court is slated to hear a batch of pleas on Friday challenging laws permitting funding of political parties through the electoral bond scheme.

According to news agency PTI, a bench of Justices B R Gavai and B V Nagarathna is likely to take up the PILs by NGO, Association for Democratic Reforms, Communist Party of India (Marxist) and other petitioners.

Advocate Prashant Bhushan, appearing for the NGO, on April 5 mentioned the matter before the then CJI N V Ramana terming the issue as a critical one that needed an urgent hearing.

The top court had agreed to list the NGO's plea for hearing but it did not come up before any court.

Electoral bonds were pitched as an alternative to cash donations made to political parties in a bid to bring transparency to political funding.

Last year, Prashant Bhushan had sought an urgent listing of the PIL from the apex court on October 4 seeking a direction to the Union government not to open any further window for sale of electoral bonds during the pendency of a case pertaining to funding of political parties and alleged lack of transparency in their accounts.

The NGO had filed the PIL in 2017 on the alleged issue of corruption and subversion of democracy through illicit and foreign funding of political parties and lack of transparency in the accounts of all political parties.

As per PTI, it had filed an interim application in March 2021 before the assembly elections in West Bengal and Assam seeking that the window for sale of electoral bonds be not reopened.

The NGO, in its fresh application filed in the pending petition, had alleged that there is a serious apprehension that any further sale of electoral bonds before the upcoming Assembly elections, including in West Bengal and Assam, would further increase illegal and illicit funding of political parties through shell companies.

The Supreme Court had refused to grant an interim stay on the 2018 Electoral Bonds Scheme and sought responses from the Union government and the Election Commission of India on an interim application by the NGO seeking a stay on the scheme.

Electoral Bond Scheme

The government notified the Electoral Bond Scheme on January 2, 2018.

According to provisions of the scheme, electoral bonds may be purchased by a person, who is a citizen of India or incorporated or established in India. An individual can buy electoral bonds, either singly or jointly with other individuals.

Only political parties registered under Section 29A of the Representation of the People Act, 1951 and which secured not less than one per cent of votes polled in the last general election to the House of the People or the Legislative Assembly of the State, are eligible to receive electoral bonds.

According to the notification, electoral bonds shall be encashed by an eligible political party only through a bank account with an authorised bank.

The apex court had in April 2019 declined to stay the Centre's Electoral Bond Scheme 2018 and made it clear that it would accord an in-depth hearing on the pleas as the Centre and the ECI have raised "weighty issues" having "tremendous bearing on the sanctity of the electoral process in the country".

The Centre and the Election Commission had earlier taken contrary stands in the court over political funding, with the government wanting to maintain the anonymity of donors of bonds while the ECI battled for revealing the names of donors for transparency. 

(With Agency Inputs)