NEW DELHI: Supreme Court observed that there was a ruling-opposition bias in the secret nature of the electoral bond scheme introduced to provide funds to political parties.

The central government says that the information of those who fund political parties will be kept confidential. However, SBI, which sells the bonds, and the country's investigative agencies will have access to the donor's information.

A five-judge constitution bench headed by Chief Justice DY Chandrachud observed that while the opposition will not be able to find out who made contributions to the ruling party, the ruling party will be able to trace the source of funds of the opposition parties using investigative agencies, which is a major drawback of the scheme.

The parties in power can question the opposition over the fund, but the opposition does not have that facility. Supreme Court was hearing the petition filed by Congress leader Dr Jaya Thakur, CPM, Association for Democratic Reforms and others questioning the transparency of the election bond scheme.

Supreme Court Observation

• It is not certain that the buyer of the bond will be the one who is paying the money
• Those who make large donations will not be ready to see their name in the bank's records
• They may assign several people to buy bonds for small amounts

Objective to prevent suspicious money

Solicitor General Tushar Mehta, who appeared for the central government, said that the effort is to prevent illegal money from reaching politics and elections. It was also argued that the donors' information is kept confidential to protect their privacy. Chief Justice DY Chandrachud observed that the Center could come up with a better scheme against black money making its way into politics even if the court struck down the electoral bond scheme.