NEW DELHI: The Supreme Court on Friday said it would examine on December 6 whether a batch of pleas challenging laws permitting funding of political parties through the electoral bond scheme should be referred to a larger bench.
A bench of Justices B R Gavai and B V Nagarathna said this is an important matter and sought assistance of the Attorney General and Solicitor General in the matter.
Solicitor General Tushar Mehta submitted before the bench that the methodology of receiving money through electoral bonds is very transparent.
Electoral bonds have been pitched as an alternative to cash donations made to political parties as part of efforts to bring transparency in political funding.
The top court was hearing the PILs by the Association for Democratic Reforms (ADR), Communist Party of India (Marxist), and other petitioners.
Advocate Prashant Bhushan, appearing for ADR, on April 5 had mentioned the matter before the then CJI N V Ramana, saying the issue was critical and needed an urgent hearing.
The top court had agreed to list the NGO's plea for hearing but it did not come up before any court.
Earlier, Bhushan had sought an urgent listing of the PIL from the apex court on October 4 last year seeking a direction to the Centre not to open any further window for sale of electoral bonds during the pendency of a case pertaining to funding of political parties and alleged lack of transparency in their accounts.
The SC in 2019 by introducing an interim safeguard had asked all political parties to submit details of receipts of the electoral bonds to the Election Commission of India (ECI) in a sealed cover.
The system of electoral bonds was introduced by way of a money bill by amendments in the Finance Act and the Representation of Peoples Act.
The ADR in their petitions had argued that such an anonymous route of funding amounted to legitimising bribery as corporates could fund the party in power in a state or Centre as a matter of quid pro quo.
Striking on the repercussions of the system on democracy, the petitions had also asserted that the scheme had opened floodgates to unlimited corporate donations to political parties and anonymous financing by Indian as well as foreign companies.
“These donations enjoy 100 per cent tax exemption and even foreign companies can donate through Indian subsidiaries,” the petitioner added.
The petition had also contended that the identity of the donors could never be known to the public and referred to reservations raised by the Reserve Bank of India and Election Commission to the Scheme.
(With inputs from Shruti Kakkar)