Read Time: 04 minutes
The government had notified the Electoral Bond Scheme in 2018, under which an Electoral Bond, a bearer instrument in the nature of a Promissory Note and an interest free banking instrument would be issued which a citizen of India or a body incorporated in India was eligible to purchase
The Supreme court today has said that it would be hearing all the petitions filed on the Electoral Bonds Scheme on Monday.
This came in response to Advocate Prashant Bhushan's mentioning made before CJI DY Chandrachud led bench.
Bhushan mentioned that a petition relating to the plea filed seeking SIT probe into the donations made under the Scheme may be heard on Monday when the other one was coming up.
Said plea seeks a probe by a Special Investigation Team into alleged pay offs and quid pro quo arrangements between the corporates and the governments in receiving thousand of crores as donations to political parties through Electoral Bonds Scheme.
The PIL filed jointly by NGOs 'Common Cause' and 'Centre for Public Interest Litigation' contended that the electoral bond data showed that the bulk of the bonds appears to have been given as quid pro quo arrangements by corporates to political parties for getting contracts/licences/leases/clearances/approvals worth thousands and sometimes lakhs of crores and other benefits from the governments or authorities controlled by the governments which were in turn controlled by the political parties that received those bonds.
The plea said that this scam needs to be investigated by a Special Investigation Team (SIT) of sitting/retired officers of impeccable integrity chosen by this court and working under the supervision of a retired judge of this court.
It also stated that electoral bonds were given in close proximity to action by agencies like the ED/IT/CBI raising suspicion of it being “protection” money to avoid or stall action by or in exchange for regulatory inaction by various regulators like the drug controller etc. The plea also aimed that electoral bonds were given as a consideration for favourable policy changes.
On February 15 this year, the Supreme Court held the 2018 Electoral Bonds Scheme to be unconstitutional saying it was violative of Article 19(1) (a) of the Constitution of India.
CJI Chandrachud had also observed that 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.
Please Login or Register
