Supreme Court: The Chief Justice of India, N.V. Ramana, told counsel Prashant Bhushan on Tuesday that the Supreme court had planned to take up a long-pending petition challenge to the government’s electoral bonds scheme sooner, but the COVID-19 outbreak intervened.
The matter has been lingering for a year without a hearing, according to Mr. Bhushan, who represents the petitioner Association for Democratic Reforms.
Supreme Court will take up the matter
“Unlimited donations from individuals and foreign companies to political parties without any record of the sources of funding,” according to the electoral bonds scheme and amendments in the Finance Act of 2017, allow for “unlimited donations from individuals and foreign companies to political parties without any record of the sources of funding.”
When the senior counsel made an oral request for early scheduling of the case for hearing, the CJI and the senior lawyer exchanged words. “Let’s see,” the Chief Justice remarked, “we’ll take it up.” In October of last year, Mr. Bhushan also requested an urgent hearing in Supreme Court.
‘Funding transparency’
The administration, on the other hand, has justified the plan as a way to increase transparency in political party finance and donations.
“They [bonds] can only be redeemed by a qualified political party through their authorized bank accounts.” “As an in-built security feature, the bonds do not bear the name of the donor or the receiving political party and only contain a unique hidden alphanumeric serial number,” according to the government’s 21-page affidavit.
The concept was touted by the administration as an “electoral reform” in a country that is transitioning to a “cashless-digital economy.”
Anonymity has been made legal
The Election Commission of India, on the other hand, filed an affidavit in 2019 claiming that the government’s political fundraising plan has legalized anonymity.
Political donors and parties that receive contributions are protected by electoral bonds. Donors who make a contribution of less than 20,000 to political parties through the purchase of electoral bonds are not required to submit personal information such as their PAN. The electoral bonds plan was justified by the administration as a way to combat black money in politics.