NEW DELHI: The Supreme Court on Monday agreed to hear a plea challenging centre’s notification of the electoral bond scheme which allows their sale for 15 extra days during the “year of general elections to the legislative assembly of States and Union territories with the legislature”.
Earlier, only an additional period of 30 days was allowed to be specified by the central government in the year of the Lok Sabha elections. Urging the bench of CJI DY Chandrachud and Justice JB Pardiwala to list the matter urgently, senior advocate Anoop George Chaudhary told the court that the plea related to the recent electoral bonds and the same were being issued against the scheme.
Considering the counsel’s contention, the CJI said, “We’ll list the matter and it’ll come up.” The Ministry of Finance on November 7 issued a notification for amending the scheme to provide “an additional period of 15 days” for their sale “in the year of general elections to the Legislative Assembly of States and Union Territories with Legislature”.
“An additional period of fifteen days shall be specified by the central government in the year of general elections to the legislative assembly of states and Union territories with the legislature,” the gazette notification said.