Supreme Court to pronounce verdict on electoral bonds on February 15

Satya Prakash

New Delhi, February 14

Ahead of the 2024 Lok Sabha elections, the Supreme Court will on Thursday pronounce its verdict on the validity of electoral bonds scheme.

A five-judge Constitution Bench led by Chief Justice of India DY Chandrachud –- which on November 2 last year reserved its verdict on petitions challenging the validity of the electoral bonds scheme –- will pronounce it at 10:30 am.

Introduced through the Finance Act, 2017, an Electoral Bond is a bearer instrument like a Promissory Note which can be purchased by an Indian citizen or an Indian company whose identity would remain secret from everybody except SBI from whom it has to be purchased. Once purchased, the buyer can give it to a political party, which can encash it using its bank account.

It was introduced through the Finance Act, 2017, which made amendments to several statutes, including RBI Act, Representation of People Act, Income Tax Act and Companies Act to facilitate the scheme which was notified on January 2, 2018.

In its PIL filed in 2017, ‘Association for Democratic Reforms’ (ADR) alleged corruption and subversion of democracy through illicit and foreign funding of political parties and lack of transparency in their accounts. Besides ADR, CPI(M) and Common Cause have also challenged electoral bonds scheme.

Maintaining that several constitutional issues having a tremendous bearing on the sanctity of electoral process were involved in the petitions challenging the validity of Electoral Bonds Scheme, the petitioners had earlier urged the Supreme Court to refer the matter to a Constitution Bench.

The Centre maintained that the electoral bonds scheme was an “absolutely transparent” mode of political funding and it was impossible to get any black or unaccounted money through it.

The Supreme Court on October 16 last year referred petitions challenging the Electoral Bonds Scheme to a five-judge Constitution Bench, saying it involved an important constitutional issue.

“In view of the importance of the issue raised, and having regard to Article 145(3) of the Constitution, the matter be placed before a Bench of at least five judges,” a three-judge Bench led by CJI DY Chandrachud had said.

On March 26, 2021, the Supreme Court had refused to stay the sale of electoral bonds ahead of the Assembly elections in West Bengal, Assam, Kerala, Tamil Nadu and Puducherry.