E-Paper
Electoral bonds absolutely transparent mode of political funding: Centre to SC
Electoral bonds: The court is considering a slew of petitions, which have challenged the validity of the Centre's electoral bonds scheme.
Electoral bonds are an absolutely transparent mode of political funding, the central government told the Supreme Court on Friday. The top court has fixed December 6 as the date to hear the case in detail.
The court is considering a slew of petitions, which have challenged the validity of the Centre's electoral bonds scheme - first floated in 2017 and implemented in 2018 - as a source of political funding. This is after 18 months that the case has been listed in the top court. Justices BR Gavai and BV Nagarathna constitute the bench considering the challenge, led by NGO Association for Democratic Reforms (ADR).
Electoral bonds - sold four times a year (in January, April, July and October) - allow political parties to accept money from donors whose identities are kept anonymous. These can be sold in multiples of ₹1,000, ₹10,000, ₹1 lakh, ₹10 lakh and ₹1 crore.
Earlier, the top court had dismissed stay applications - which were moved by the ADR - to stop the sale of the electoral bonds. This was before polls were due in West Bengal, Tamil Nadu, Assam, Kerala and Puducherry.
In April, a bench headed by then chief Justice of India NV Ramana, observed that had it not been for the limited hearings amid the pandemic, the court would have taken up the matter earlier. “If it was not because of Covid, we would have heard this. Let us see… we will take this up,” he told advocate Prashant Bhushan, who was representing the ADR.
The hearing of the case is expected to come while Gujarat and Himachal would be in the process of choosing their next governments.
