Supreme Court to examine plea against electoral bonds

New Delhi: The Supreme Court on Tuesday agreed to hear a plea against the scheme of electoral bonds introduced in 2018 allowing political parties to take donations from firms allegedly in an opaque manner.

Advocate Prashant Bhushan, representing the NGO 'Association for Democratic Reforms', mentioned the matter before a bench presided over by Chief Justice N V Ramana that it is a critical issue, which requires urgent hearing.

He referred to a news report stating that a Calcutta-based company paid Rs 40 crore through electoral bonds to ensure that no excise raids were conducted on it. The bench said that had it not been for Covid-19, the court would have heard the matter. The bench, also comprising Justices Krishna Murari and Hima Kohli, assured Bhushan of an early listing of the matter. The government notified the Electoral Bond Scheme on January 2, 2018, to cleanse the system of political funding in the country. ADR had filed a plea alleging subversion of democracy through illicit money and lack of transparency in the accounts of all political parties. On March 27, 2021, the top court had rejected the charge that the scheme was totally opaque. It had said the apprehension that foreign corporate houses may buy the bonds and attempt to influence the electoral process in the country, was misconceived as under Clause 3 of the Scheme, the bonds may be purchased only by a person who is a citizen of India or a company incorporated or established here. With regard to details of donors in the public domain, the bench had said, "It is not as though the operations under the Scheme are behind iron curtains incapable of being pierced."