The Association for Democratic Reforms (ADR) has moved the Supreme Court on Tuesday seeking a stay on the sale of electoral bonds ahead of elections to the assemblies of West Bengal, Puducherry, Assam, Tamil Nadu and Kerala. The ADR alleged that it feared that the sale of electoral bonds if not stopped would heighten the chances of malpractice in the form of non-transparent funding of political parties through Benami companies.
The bonds will go on sale in the next round from April 1. Tamil Nadu, Kerala and Puducherry go to vote on April 6 and Assam will be concluding its last and third phase on that day while West Bengal will also be voting in the third phase that day.
The petitioner moved the urgent application before the Apex Court given that the case against electoral bonds is sub-judice and prayed that the government be directed no to sell any bonds until this petition is dealt with. Senior Advocate Prashant Bhushan, who filed the petition today, had already moved against the bonds which were cleared by the Finance Act, 2017.
The petition said changes to the law have made it diffcult to find out which party has been given money by whom following the withdrawal of requirement for corporates to declare the quantum of money used to buy bons from which party. All that is availabel for people to see is that parties get to declare the total amount they have gained by sale of bonds without a breakdown of which company gave how much, the plea said.
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This is despite the fact that electoral bonds being bearer instruments, they have to be over to the political parties in a physical meeting, the plea said.
Similarly, the doing away of limits on how much businesses can donate via electoral bonds will also cast a cloud on transparency, the plea said.
This has led to an overall increase in non-transparent funding of political parties, the plea said, adding the government opened sale of electoral bonds just ahead of elections.