Setback for Centre, Supreme Court strikes down electoral bond scheme

NEW DELHI: A five-member bench of the Supreme Court headed by Chief Justice DY Chandrachud unanimously struck down the electoral bond scheme calling it 'unconstitutional'. The verdict was on the petitions challenging the legality of the electoral bond.

The Supreme Court directed to stop the issue of electoral bonds. The court pointed out that 'electoral bonds' that allow individuals and companies to donate money to political parties anonymously and without any limits are unconstitutional and violate the citizen's right to information.

The court observed that donors gain influence over parties and this is detrimental to the electoral process. The Supreme Court also directed that the bond information so far be provided to the Election Commission. This information should be published on the website by March 31.

This verdict is a setback for the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP), which has been the largest beneficiary of the system it introduced in 2017.

Uncashed bonds must be returned by the parties. The court pointed out that electoral bonds are not the only way to prevent money laundering.

The report of the Election Commission has recently come out that the BJP has accepted Rs 1300 crore as an electoral bond for the financial year 2022-23. It was reported that the BJP had collected seven times the amount of money that the Congress had collected as electoral bonds. In 2017, the then Finance Minister Arun Jaitley proposed this scheme and the bill was passed in 2018.