India’s Supreme Court on Thursday banned a seven-year-old election funding scheme that allowed individuals and companies to secretly fund political parties.
A five-judge bench headed by Chief Justice DY Chandrachur in a unanimous verdict said the system was ‘unconstitutional’. The court said that the Electoral Bonds (EB) scheme is a violation of people’s right to information and freedom of expression.
According to the ‘Association for Democratic Reforms’, an organization monitoring the elections in the country, from 2018 to 2023, secret donors provided more than one and a half billion pounds to political parties through these bonds.
About 57 percent of these donations went to Narendra Modi’s BJP between 2018 and March 2022, the body added. In comparison, the opposition Congress party could get only 10 percent of the money.
Only registered political parties that had secured at least one percent of votes in the previous elections to Parliament or State Assembly were eligible to receive these bonds.
Before the introduction of this scheme, political parties in India had to disclose the identity of any donor who paid more than Rs 20,000.
But under the latest system of political financing, they could disclose the amount received through bonds but not the identity of the funder. These bonds were sold at prices ranging from Rs 1,000 to Rs 1 crore.
Electoral bonds have been challenged by opposition members and a civil society group on the grounds that it hampers the public’s right to know where political parties get their money.
Under this system, a person or company can purchase these bonds from the state-run State Bank of India (SBI) and donate them to a political party of their choice.
The Constitution Bench heard the case for three days between October 31 and November 2 last year.
Advocate Prashant Bhushan, appearing for civil society group ARD and Common Cause, argued that the scheme is clearly beneficial to the current ruling government as the guarantee of anonymity allows them to grant donors licences, leases, In case of government contract and change in policy
Permits to provide concessions.
However, Solicitor General Tushar Mehta, appearing for the government, defended the scheme saying that the aim was not to ensure ‘anonymity’ but to provide ‘privacy’ to donors. He also argued for donors’ right to privacy.
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But a five-judge bench, also comprising Justices Sanjiv Khanna, BR Gavai, JB Pardiwala and Manoj Mishra, agreed with the petitioners and ruled that the Electoral Bond Scheme should be struck down as unconstitutional. Should. This violates the citizens’ right to information, possibly in relation to a micro-broadcast.
The bench further said that ‘financial support to political parties is done for two purposes, one is to support the political party or for some minor gain.’
The bench directed the banks to stop issuing electoral bonds. The court ordered SBI to provide details of cashed bonds of political parties.
It also said that the details should be submitted to the Election Commission of India, which would later be published on the body’s website.
Former Chief Election Commissioner of India SY Qureshi called the decision “historic” and said it was “very beneficial for democracy.”
He told the Press Trust of India: ‘We have all been concerned about this for the past several years. Everyone who loves democracy was protesting about it.
“I myself wrote several articles and spoke to the media several times and every issue we raised was resolved by this decision.”
Advocate Prashant Bhushan also welcomed the verdict, saying it will have a long-term impact on our electoral democracy.
He said: ‘The Supreme Court struck down the Electoral Bond Scheme and all the provisions made to implement it in the Income Tax Act, Companies Act, etc., were struck down.
“They are of the view that it violates the fundamental right of citizens to information that they were not able to know who is giving so much money to political parties.”
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2024-08-03 21:20:11