Supreme Court to hear requests for challenging election bond settlement in March

New Delhi:

The Supreme Court said today it will hear a series of pleas in March challenging the government’s Electoral Bond scheme, which allows anonymous funding to political parties.

A bench of Chief Justice of India DY Chandrachud and Justice PS Narasimha placed the case for hearing in the third week of March.

It also said two other petitions – one raising the issue of bringing political parties under the Right to Information Act (RTI Act) and the other concerning certification under the Foreign Contribution Regulation Act (FCRA) for political funding , differ from the case of the electoral bonds and will be heard separately.

The bank placed the cases for hearing in April.

Earlier, lawyer Prashant Bhushan, who represents the NGOs Association for Democratic Reforms and Common Cause – petitioners in the case – had told the top court that the case should be referred to a five-judge constitutional bench.

Earlier an application was filed in the Supreme Court regarding the Center to amend the Electoral Bonds schedule to allow their sale for an additional 15 days during the “year of general elections for the Legislative Assembly of States and Territories of the Union with the legislature”.

The new application was filed by Congress leader Jaya Thakur in the main case, which has been pending since 2017.

Jaya Thakur had challenged the Electoral Bond scheme, which allows anonymous funding to political parties.

An Electoral Bond is an instrument in the form of a promissory note or bearer bond that can be purchased by an individual, company, corporation or association of persons, provided that the person or body is a citizen of India or incorporated or based in India. The bonds are issued specifically for the purpose of donating funds to political parties.

The Treasury Department issued a notice on November 7, 2022 for amendment of the arrangement to provide “an additional period of 15 days” for their sales “in the year of general elections for the Legislative Assembly of States and Union Territories with legislative powers “.

“An additional period of fifteen days will be specified by the central government in the year of general elections for the legislative assembly of states and territories of the Union with the legislature,” the notice in the official gazette read.

The government notified the Electoral Bond Scheme in 2018. The bonds under this scheme are usually made available for purchase by an individual for a period of ten days each during the months of January, April, July and October, as specified by the Union Government.

The original arrangement provided for an additional 30-day period, as specified by the government, in the year the Lok Sabha elections are held, while the amendment adds another 15 days.

In October, the Center had said in an affidavit that the methodology of the election bond arrangement is a “fully transparent” form of political financing and that it is impossible to get black money or unaccounted for money.

There are several petitions pending in the Supreme Court challenging at least changes made to several statutes through the Finance Act 2017 and Finance Act 2016 on the grounds that they have opened doors to unrestricted, uncontrolled funding of political parties.

NGOs Association of Democratic Reforms and Common Cause have said that the Finance Bill, 2017, which paved the way for the introduction of the electoral bond scheme, was passed as a money bill, although it was not.

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