Mahima
A Supreme Court bench will hear a plea seeking stay on fresh sale of electoral bonds. The plea seeks to stay the sale of electoral bonds ahead of assembly polls in West Bengal, Assam, Kerala, Tamil Nadu, and Union Territory of Puducherry.
The plea has been filed by an NGO Association for Democratic Reforms (ADR) which is being represented by Prashant Bhushan.
Chief Justice of India SA Bobde had previously remarked that the matter cannot be decided upon without a detailed hearing.
The petition entails, “There is a serious apprehension that any further sale of electoral bonds before the upcoming state
elections in West Bengal, Tamil Nadu, Kerala, and Assam would further increase illegal and illicit funding of political parties through shell companies. Thus, the petitioner seeks a direction that no further opening of the window for the sale of electoral bonds is allowed during the pendency of the instant writ petition”.
An electoral bond is an instrument in the form of a promissory note or bearer bond which can be purchased by any citizen of India or any company incorporated in India to donate the same to their preferred political party. These are payable on demand to the bearer and are free of interest.
The plea calls for a suspension on the sale of fresh electoral bonds until the top court decides the three pending litigations which challenges the validity of the Electoral Bond Scheme 2018. The Electoral Bond Scheme granted anonymity to donors for political parties. The plea stresses upon the government to refuse the opening of any further window for the sale of electoral bonds when both, RBI and Election Commission have objected to the aforementioned scheme.
According to an RTI, sale windows have been instrumental in benefiting certain political parties by illicit funding through shell companies. The petitioner also contended that on previous occasions when the government had opened an electoral bond sale window ahead of State assembly elections, the sale of electoral bonds was roughly around Rs. 6500 crores with the majority of its donations to the ruling party.
The petition also maintains that the Centre’s implementation of the scheme despite the objection of RBI, Election Commission, and even the Law Ministry has legitimized large-scale corruption. The petition demands striking off of amendments of the Finance Act on the grounds of complete lack of transparency about cash inflow in the accounts of political parties. These donations are also
100% tax exemptions as they are not reported to the Income Tax department.