The bench led by the Chief Justice of India DY Chandrachud on 15th February held that the 2018 Electoral Bonds Scheme to be unconstitutional.
The Supreme Court five member bench comprising of Chief Justice of India (CJI) Justice DY Chandrachud along with Justice Sanjiv Khanna,Justice BR Gavai, Justice JB Pardiwala and Justice Manoj Misra unanimously quashed the scheme.
The bench also quashed the amendments made to the Income Tax Act and the Representation of People Act which had made the donations anonymous.
The electoral bonds scheme allowed anonymous donations to political parties.
The CJI in his judgment said that they have found the Electoral Bonds Scheme to be is Unconstitutional in nature.
The Bench believed that Union of India has failed to establish least restrictive measures of the Electoral Bonds Scheme for political funding.
The bench also said that the electoral bonds were Court violative of Article 19(1) (a) of the Constitution of India.
The judgement said that Electoral Bonds Scheme, proviso to Section 29(1)(c) as amended by Section 139 of Income Tax Act and Section 13(b) as amended by Finance Act 2017 is violative of Article 19(1)(a).
The Apex Court has thus directed the banks from not issuing Electoral Bonds any more.
The Court also held that electoral bonds scheme cannot be justified by saying that it will help curb black money in politics.
The Court further said that while privacy of donors is important, transparency in political funding cannot be achieved by granting absolute exemptions
The State Bank of India has been instructed to disclose information on electoral bonds issued and cashed out since the court’s interim order of April 2019 within three weeks to the election commission of India.
By March 13, the ECI shall publish such details on its official website.
The Court ordered that political parties should thereafter refund the Electoral bonds amount to the purchasers account.
CJI also believed that the information on funding of political parties is important for effective democracy as this could lead to a quid pro quo situation where funders are given favours through various means like policy changes etc.
Last year in november, the bench had reserved its verdict in the pleas challenging the 2018 Electoral Bonds.
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