New Delhi: A five-judge Constitution bench of the Supreme Court is scheduled to begin hearing from October 31 on petitions challenging the validity of the ‘Electoral Bond’ scheme for political funding of parties. The ‘Electoral Bond’ scheme was notified on January 2, 2018. It was introduced as an alternative to cash donations to parties as part of efforts to bring transparency in political funding.
As per the provisions of the scheme, electoral bonds can be purchased by a person having Indian citizenship or an institution established in India. A person can buy it alone or jointly with other persons. Chief Justice D.Y. A bench headed by Chandrachud is scheduled to hear four petitions, including those filed by Congress leader Jaya Thakur and the Communist Party of India-Marxist (CPI-M).
Other members of the bench were Justice Sanjiv Khanna, Justice B. R. Gavai, Justice J. B. Pardiwala and Justice Manoj Mishra. The Supreme Court had on October 16 said, “In view of the importance of the issues raised, and in the light of Article 145(4) of the Constitution (Rules relating to the business of the Supreme Court), the matter is referred to a bench of not less than five judges.” Will be placed before…”
On October 10, the court had taken note of the arguments of senior advocate Prashant Bhushan, appearing for the NGO ‘Association for Democratic Rights’ (ADR), that the issue needed to be decided before the launch of the bond scheme for the 2024 Lok Sabha elections. Is. Bhushan had said that anonymous funding through electoral bonds promotes corruption and violates the rights of citizens of a corruption-free nation.
He had argued, “Since the source of funding remains anonymous, it encourages corruption.” This violates Article 21 of the Constitution and the problem will escalate rapidly if no decision is taken in the matter. Four PILs are pending on this issue. One of these petitioners had said in March that Rs 12,000 crore has so far been paid to political parties through electoral bonds and two-thirds of this amount has gone to a major political party.
The apex court had on March 21 said it would consider whether the petitions could be referred to a Constitution bench for an acceptable decision.
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