The Supreme Court on Thursday reserved its verdict on the petitions challenging the validity of the Electoral Bonds scheme, which was first brought out by the Central government in March 2018.
The Constitution Bench comprising Chief Justice of India D.Y. Chandrachud, Justice Sanjiv Khanna, Justice B.R. Gavai, Justice J.B. Pardiwala and Justice Manoj Misra reserved its judgement after hearing the case for three consecutive days.
Earlier in the day, the Apex Court flayed the Election Commission of India for not having data regarding the funds received by all political parties by Electoral Bonds and directed the ECI to collate and submit the same by September 30.
The Apex Court pointed out that as per the interim order passed on April 12, 2019, the Commission was obliged to maintain the data of electoral bond fundings till date.
Appearing for the ECI, Advocate Amit Sharma apprised the Apex Court that the poll panel was under the impression that the April 2019 order pertained only to electoral bonds issued in connection with the 2019 Lok Sabha elections.
However, the Apex Court rejected the submission and said the order was clear that the data had to be continuously collected.
The petitions were filed by the Association for Democratic Reforms (ADR), the Communist Party of India (Marxist) and Congress leader Dr Jaya Thakur.
They challenged the amendments introduced by the Finance Act 2017, which paved the way for the Electoral Bonds scheme. According to petitioners, the anonymity attached to the electoral bonds affected the transparency in political fundings and infringe the voters’ right to information.
They also contended that the scheme allowed contributions to be made through shell companies.
(Case title: Association For Democratic Reforms And Anr vs Union Of India And Ors)