New Delhi: As per the latest news updates, the Supreme Court unanimously struck down the ‘electoral bonds scheme,’ terming it as “unconstitutional.” This controversial method of political funding has now been stopped. The Chief Justice of India, DY Chandrachud, led a team of five judges who made this decision.
The court ordered the State Bank of India (SBI), the bank issuing the bonds, to stop making them right away. CJI Chandrachud explained that the electoral bonds scheme goes against the Article 19(1)(a) of the IPC, and is hence unconstitutional.
It is noteworthy mentioning that the Supreme Court ordered the SBI to give detailed records of all electoral bond contributions to the ECI (Election Commission of India). This includes all contributions from the beginning of the scheme in 2019 until now. The ECI will be receiving this information in about three weeks time and will publish it on its website for everyone to see.
Notably, the Electoral bonds scheme started back in 2018 in order to make political donations more transparent. However, this raised concern of corruption among the public as the donors’ name was kept a secret. Three people took this issue to the Supreme Court. The group stated that the scheme is not fair and also violates the voters’ right to now. They also said that the scheme allows shady companies to give money.
The government supported the scheme saying it makes sure that only ‘legal’ money is used for political funding through proper banks. They even argued that keeping donors’ names secret protects them from problems with political parties. However, the court had questions during the hearing. They enquired about the scheme’s “selective anonymity” and why the limit on how much companies can give to political parties was removed.
Ms Kalinga