A five-judge Constitution bench will hear the pleas challenging the validity of the electoral bonds scheme due to the importance of the issue, the Supreme Court said on Monday, reported Bar and Bench.
Chief Justice DY Chandrachud said that the court had received a plea to refer the case from the current three-judge bench to a larger bench of at least five judges.
Electoral bonds are monetary instruments that citizens or corporate groups can buy from a bank and donate to a political party, which is then free to redeem these for money. The Bharatiya Janata Party government at the Centre introduced the electoral bonds scheme in January 2018.
The case against electoral bonds was filed in the Supreme Court by the Association for Democratic Reforms in September 2017, but has since been pending. In March, the Supreme Court said that it would consider if the petitions against electoral bonds are to be referred to the Constitution bench.
Last week, the top court had listed the final hearing of pleas on October 31.
At the hearing on October 10, Attorney General R Venkatramani had argued that one of the issues raised in the plea was that the electoral bonds scheme was introduced through a money bill. He said that the court is already hearing another petition challenging the rules pertaining to the passage of laws as money bills in Parliament.
Money bills can be passed without the assent of the Rajya Sabha. The electoral bonds scheme was also introduced as a money bill in the Lok Sabha.
However, advocate Prashant Bhushan, representing one of the petitioners, said that he will argue the matter without the money bill issue.
The Supreme Court will focus on two issues raised by the petitioners – the validity of anonymous donations to political parties and the violation of Right to Information Act on the funding of political parties. The petitioners have alleged that these provisions of the electoral bond scheme promote corruption.
Former Union Finance Minister Arun Jaitley had announced the electoral bond scheme in his Budget speech in 2017, claiming the government wanted to clean up political funding and make it a transparent process.
However, the entire process is anonymous since no one is required to declare their purchase of these interest-free bonds and political parties do not need to show the source of the money. The government had claimed that the money is unlikely to be “black” since it has to be given by cheque.
The Association for Democratic Reforms in a report last month had found that the total declared assets of the Bharatiya Janata Party were seven-and-a-half times those of the Congress in 2021-’22. The BJP’s declared assets amounted to Rs 6,046.81 crore last year, an increase of 21.17% from Rs 4,990 crore in 2020-’21.
The declared assets of the Congress stood at Rs 805.68 crore last year, an increase of 16.58% from Rs 691.11 crore in 2020-’21.
Limited-time offer: Big stories, small price. Keep independent media alive. Become a Scroll member today!
Our journalism is for everyone. But you can get special privileges by buying an annual Scroll Membership. Sign up today!