NEW DELHI: The Supreme Court, on Tuesday, agreed to decide on April 11 whether pleas dealing with the Electoral Bonds scheme should be referred to the Constitution bench. A bench of CJI DY Chandrachud and Justice PS Narasimha will decide whether the Constitution bench will hear the pleas.
Senior Advocate Dushyant Dave said that the same is an issue that goes to the core of “our democratic existence” and is “serious”.
“This needs to be heard. It's a very serious matter. We will only benefit if the matter is heard by CB. It’s an issue that goes to the core of our democratic existence,” Dave said.
“This is an issue which impacts the democratic polity and funding of political parties", Advocate Shadan Farasat said while urging the bench to refer the matter to the Constitution bench.
Earlier, a bench headed by Justice BR Gavai had posted pleas dealing with the electoral bonds scheme, to decide whether they should be referred to a larger bench. The reference was sought in the pleas filed by Association for Democratic Reform (ADR), a non-governmental organisation.
ADR’s plea 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.
The plea 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.
When the petitions were listed on March 26, 2021, the bench led by the then CJI had refused to stay the release of the fresh set of electoral bonds from April 1 for the assembly polls in West Bengal, Kerala, Tamil Nadu, Assam and Puducherry.
The court had said that since the bonds were allowed to be released in 2018, 2019, and 2020 without interruption and there were sufficient safeguards, there was justification to not stay them at the moment. “The apprehension that foreign corporate houses may buy the bonds and attempt to influence the electoral process in the country, is also misconceived. Under Clause 3 of the Scheme, the Bonds may be purchased only by a person, who is a citizen of India or incorporated or established in India,” SC in its order had said.