By: Geetanjali
Supreme Court Tossed away Electoral Bonds: Declares it “Unconstitutional”
In a historic judgement, on February 15, 2024 The Supreme Court(SC) of India tossed away the Electoral Bonds scheme. Scheme allowed individuals and corporations to anonymously donate money to any political party legally by buying electoral bonds from SBI.
Electoral bonds were introduced in 2017’s Finance Bill by then Finance Minister Late. Arun Jaitley. Which was later Challenged in The Supreme Court by ADR MP Jaya Thakur.
The Supreme Court’s five judges bench headed by CJI DY Chandrachur, and other members Justice BR Gavai, JB Pardiwala, Manoj Misra, Sanjiv Khanna mentioned that the scheme breaches Article 19(1)(a) of The Constitution, The Right to Information which influences freedom of speech and expression of an individual.
Amendments made to the Income Tax Act 1961 and Representations of the People’s Act that made donations unknown were also revoked by the SC bench.
The apex court directed that the bonds which are yet not encashed by political parties have to to be refunded by the issuing bank to the buyer’s account.
Court also ordered SBI (State Bank of India) to present details of electoral bonds purchased and received by any political party since April,12 2019 to ECI( Election Commission of India) before March 6. ECI is notified to public all the details by March 13.
