ELECTORAL BONDS SCHEME DECLARED INVALID
SCHEME & POINTS OF CONFLICT
ELECTORAL BONDS SCHEME CHALLENGE & VERDICT
APEX COURT ELECTORAL BONDS SCHEME VERDICT:
ELECTORAL BOND SCHEME WAS CHALLENGED & DECLARED INVALID BY SUPREME COURT FOLLOWING THE VERDICT IN FEBRUARY, 2024
Supreme Court's Electoral Bonds Case Verdict
Amendments introduced by the Finance Act, 2017, introduced a new arrangement for financial contributions to political parties, the “Electoral Bond Scheme.”
Through a unanimous verdict of five judges, the court ruled as unconstitutional , the “Electoral Bond Scheme.”
The Court identified two issues for consideration.
- First, would the maintenance of secrecy over the identity of political contributors and the extent of their contributions violate the right to information?
- Second, would limitless corporate funding infringe the principle of free and fair elections and therefore violate the right to equality?
Preserving the right to information -
Unless people have full knowledge, they would scarcely be able to vote with reason and express themselves freely in a manner guaranteed under Article 19(1)(a) of the Constitution.
Court noted that it had previously recognised that candidates must disclose all relevant information & that this standard must extend to political parties too. For under India's Westminster system, political parties represented an integral unit in the electoral process.
Unlimited corporate funding - Permitting unlimited corporate funding of parties, as the Electoral Bond Scheme did, comes with obvious dangers.
ELECTORAL BOND SCHEME 2018
APEX COURT ELECTORAL BONDS SCHEME VERDICT:
Electoral Bond Scheme was started in 2018 & was amended in 2022, following were the salient features till it was declared unconstitutional in 2024.
- Electoral Bond functions like a cheque.
- Any Indian citizen can buy
- It can be procured by a donor in various denominations, from specific branches of the State Bank of India(SBI).
- To be redeemed within 15 days of issuance - Within a span of 15 days of issuance, these electoral bonds can be redeemed in the designated account of a legally registered political party.
- The bonds will be available for purchase for 10 days in the month of January, April, July, and October with an additional time-frame of 30 days in the year of General Elections for Lok Sabha.
- Electoral bonds features anonymity since it bears no identification of the donor and the political party to which it is issued.