Supreme Court Posts Electoral Bonds Case To December 6

The Supreme Court on Friday posted a batch of petitions challenging the anonymous electoral bonds scheme to December 6.A bench comprising Justices BR Gavai and BV Nagarathna was considering a batch of petitions filed by Association for Democratic Reforms, Communist Party of India (Marxist) etc, challenging the electoral bonds scheme.The case was listed today for first time after the last posting March 26, 2021.In the brief hearing held on Friday, Senior Advocates Kapil Sibal, Gopal Sankaranarayanan and Advocate Prashant Bhushan, appearing for the petitioners, pressed for an early hearing of the matter either next week or in November, ahead of the assembly elections of Gujarat and Himachal Pradesh which are likely to be held in December.Attorney General for India R Venkataramani and Solicitor General of India Tushar Mehta submitted that several Constitution Bench hearings are scheduled in November and requested that the present matter be posted to January 2023. The petitioners objected to this request and urged for an early listing.Ultimately, the bench agreed to list the matter on December 6, 2022.Court room exchangeWhen the matter was taken, Advocate Prashant Bhushan submitted that three interconnected issues arose - one is the electoral bonds issue. Next is whether political parties can come under RTI. Third is whether the retrospective amendment to FCRA is legal. By virtue of this amendment, Bhushan said that any body can get foreign money. Whether these changes could be introduced through a money bill is another issue, Bhushan added.Senior Advocate Kapil Sibal submitted that the issues are important and hence the matter should be heard by a larger bench. The bench wondered if a reference can be made without finding any conflict with any other judgment. Sibal then referred to Article 145 to say that constitutionally important matters are to be heard by Constitution Benches.Solicitor General Tushar Mehta said that the scheme has ensured transparency by eliminating black money from political funding. "The methodology of receiving the money has been so transparent. We will take your Lordships through step by step. Now it's impossible to get any black or unaccounted money. Very transparent system. To say this that this affects democracy may not hold the water", the SG said."Does system provide for where the money comes?", Justice Gavai asked."Absolutely", the SG asserted.The bench asked the AG about his view regarding reference to larger bench. The AG replied that there should be threshold hearing by the bench before deciding on reference.Bhushan informed the bench that the Election Commission will announce the election schedule for Gujarat and Himachal Pradesh today and added that electoral bonds are issued before every elections.The SG said "this is not an election related issue".The bench ultimately posted the matter to December 6. When Sibal sought for an earlier posting, Justice Gavai said "the matter has been pending for last 7 years in any case".During the last held hearings of the case in March 2021, a bench led by the then CJI SA Bobde refused to stay the electoral bonds scheme ahead of assembly elections in 5 states, observing that there are sufficient safeguards in the scheme. The bench observed that the scheme was introduced to ensure that political donations happen through banking channels. As regards the concerns about donor anonymity, the bench had said that it could be "pierced" by culling out information from the records filed before public authorities and doing "match the following".BackgroundThe petitions were filed in 2017 challenging the provisions of Finance Act 2017 which paved the way for anonymous electoral bonds. The Finance Act 2017 introduced amendments in Reserve Bank of India Act, Companies Act, Income Tax Act, Representation of Peoples Act and Foreign Contributions Regulations Act to make way for electoral bonds.The petitions have been filed by political party Communist Party of India(Marxist), and NGOs Common Cause and Association for Democratic Reforms(ADR),which challenge the scheme as "an obscure funding system which is unchecked by any authority". The petitioners voiced the apprehension that the amendments to Companies Act 2013 will lead to "private corporate interests taking precedence over the needs and rights of the people of the State in policy considerations".However, the case became alive only by March 2019, by which time most of the electoral bonds have been purchased. On April 12, 2019, after several sessions of hearing held during the run up to the 2019 Lok Sabha polls, a three judges bench of the SC comprising the then CJI Ranjan Gogoi, Justice Deepak Gupta and Sanjiv Khanna had directed the political parties to submit the details of donations received to the ECI in sealed cover by May 30.The Election Commission of India has already filed a counter-affidavit in the case expressing its concerns about the anonymous nature of bonds. The ECI has described this a...

Supreme Court Posts Electoral Bonds Case To December 6

Rintu Mariam Biju

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