SC to listen to pleas difficult Electoral Bond Scheme on December 6
7 min readBy PTI
NEW DELHI: The Supreme Court on Tuesday stated it can hear on December 6 the plea of a Congress chief difficult a current notification by which the sale of electoral bonds has been prolonged by 15 extra days within the 12 months of basic elections to legislative assemblies of states and Union Territories (UTs) with a legislature.
A bench comprising Chief Justice D Y Chandrachud and Justices Hima Kohli and J B Pardiwala stated it can hear the recent plea by Congress chief Jaya Thakur together with different pending petitions difficult the validity of the 2018 Electoral Bond Scheme on December 6.
Electoral bonds have been pitched as an alternative choice to money donations made to political events as a part of efforts to carry transparency in political funding.
The authorities had notified the Electoral Bond Scheme on January 2, 2018.
According to provisions of the scheme, electoral bonds could also be bought by an individual, who’s a citizen of India or a physique included or established in India.
An particular person can purchase electoral bonds, both singly or collectively with different people.
Only political events registered below Section 29A of the Representation of the People Act, 1951 and people which secured not lower than one per cent of votes polled within the final basic election to the House of the People or the Legislative Assembly of the State, are eligible to obtain electoral bonds.
According to the notification, electoral bonds shall be encashed by an eligible political social gathering solely by way of a checking account with an authorised financial institution.
Recently, a recent notification was issued by the Centre amending the Electoral Bond Scheme of 2018 to offer “an additional period of 15 days” for the sale of electoral bonds “in the year of general elections to the legislative assemblies of States and Union Territories with legislature.”
Congress chief Jaya Thakur has challenged the recent notification.
Another bench headed by Justice B R Gavai is seized of pending petitions together with the PILs by NGO Association for Democratic Reforms, the CPI(M) and another petitioners.
The Centre had on October 14 advised the bench that the electoral bonds scheme is a completely clear mode of political funding and it’s unimaginable to get any black or unaccounted cash by way of it.
“The methodology of receiving money has been so transparent. We will explain step by step. Now it is impossible to get any black or unaccounted money. It is the most transparent system. To say it affects democracy does not hold water,” Solicitor General Tushar Mehta, showing for the Union of India, had advised the bench comprising Justices Gavai and B V Nagarathna.
Advocate Prashant Bhushan, showing for NGO Association for Democratic Reforms, had known as it a really interconnected difficulty which impacts democracy.
The high court docket had stated it can study on December 6 whether or not the batch of pleas difficult the legal guidelines allowing the funding of political events by way of the electoral bond scheme must be referred to a bigger bench.
The apex court docket termed it an necessary matter which requires an in depth listening to and sought the help of the Attorney General and Solicitor General.
Prior to this, Bhushan had sought an pressing itemizing of the PIL by the apex court docket on October 4 final 12 months, searching for a path to the Centre to not open any additional window for the sale of electoral bonds in the course of the pendency of a case pertaining to the funding of political events and alleged lack of transparency of their monetary accounts.
The NGO, which had filed the PIL in 2017 on the alleged difficulty of “corruption and subversion of democracy” by way of illicit and overseas funding of political events and lack of transparency within the accounts of all political events, had filed an interim software in March 2021, earlier than the meeting polls in West Bengal and Assam, searching for the window for the sale of electoral bonds be not reopened.
The apex court docket had in April 2019 declined to remain the Centre’s Electoral Bond Scheme 2018 and made it clear it can accord an in-depth listening to to the pleas because the Centre and the EC have raised “weighty issues” having “tremendous bearing on the sanctity of the electoral process in the country”.
The Centre and the EC had earlier taken opposite stands within the court docket over political funding, with the federal government wanting to take care of the anonymity of donors and the ballot panel batting for revealing their names for transparency.
ALSO READ | Electoral bonds have been a combined bag
NEW DELHI: The Supreme Court on Tuesday stated it can hear on December 6 the plea of a Congress chief difficult a current notification by which the sale of electoral bonds has been prolonged by 15 extra days within the 12 months of basic elections to legislative assemblies of states and Union Territories (UTs) with a legislature.
A bench comprising Chief Justice D Y Chandrachud and Justices Hima Kohli and J B Pardiwala stated it can hear the recent plea by Congress chief Jaya Thakur together with different pending petitions difficult the validity of the 2018 Electoral Bond Scheme on December 6.
Electoral bonds have been pitched as an alternative choice to money donations made to political events as a part of efforts to carry transparency in political funding.
The authorities had notified the Electoral Bond Scheme on January 2, 2018.
According to provisions of the scheme, electoral bonds could also be bought by an individual, who’s a citizen of India or a physique included or established in India.
An particular person can purchase electoral bonds, both singly or collectively with different people.
Only political events registered below Section 29A of the Representation of the People Act, 1951 and people which secured not lower than one per cent of votes polled within the final basic election to the House of the People or the Legislative Assembly of the State, are eligible to obtain electoral bonds.
According to the notification, electoral bonds shall be encashed by an eligible political social gathering solely by way of a checking account with an authorised financial institution.
Recently, a recent notification was issued by the Centre amending the Electoral Bond Scheme of 2018 to offer “an additional period of 15 days” for the sale of electoral bonds “in the year of general elections to the legislative assemblies of States and Union Territories with legislature.”
Congress chief Jaya Thakur has challenged the recent notification.
Another bench headed by Justice B R Gavai is seized of pending petitions together with the PILs by NGO Association for Democratic Reforms, the CPI(M) and another petitioners.
The Centre had on October 14 advised the bench that the electoral bonds scheme is a completely clear mode of political funding and it’s unimaginable to get any black or unaccounted cash by way of it.
“The methodology of receiving money has been so transparent. We will explain step by step. Now it is impossible to get any black or unaccounted money. It is the most transparent system. To say it affects democracy does not hold water,” Solicitor General Tushar Mehta, showing for the Union of India, had advised the bench comprising Justices Gavai and B V Nagarathna.
Advocate Prashant Bhushan, showing for NGO Association for Democratic Reforms, had known as it a really interconnected difficulty which impacts democracy.
The high court docket had stated it can study on December 6 whether or not the batch of pleas difficult the legal guidelines allowing the funding of political events by way of the electoral bond scheme must be referred to a bigger bench.
The apex court docket termed it an necessary matter which requires an in depth listening to and sought the help of the Attorney General and Solicitor General.
Prior to this, Bhushan had sought an pressing itemizing of the PIL by the apex court docket on October 4 final 12 months, searching for a path to the Centre to not open any additional window for the sale of electoral bonds in the course of the pendency of a case pertaining to the funding of political events and alleged lack of transparency of their monetary accounts.
The NGO, which had filed the PIL in 2017 on the alleged difficulty of “corruption and subversion of democracy” by way of illicit and overseas funding of political events and lack of transparency within the accounts of all political events, had filed an interim software in March 2021, earlier than the meeting polls in West Bengal and Assam, searching for the window for the sale of electoral bonds be not reopened.
The apex court docket had in April 2019 declined to remain the Centre’s Electoral Bond Scheme 2018 and made it clear it can accord an in-depth listening to to the pleas because the Centre and the EC have raised “weighty issues” having “tremendous bearing on the sanctity of the electoral process in the country”.
The Centre and the EC had earlier taken opposite stands within the court docket over political funding, with the federal government wanting to take care of the anonymity of donors and the ballot panel batting for revealing their names for transparency.ALSO READ | Electoral bonds have been a combined bag
