SC won’t stay Electoral Bond Scheme

Syllabus subtopic: Government policies and interventions for development in various sectors and issues arising out of their design and implementation.

Prelims and Mains focus: about the SC judgement; arguments for and against Electoral Bonds Scheme

News: Chief Justice of India (CJI) Sharad A. Bobde on Monday orally made it clear that if the Supreme Court had found it unnecessary to stay the electoral bonds scheme (EBS), it may not stay the scheme even now.

Background

On April 12 last, to ensure that the balance was not tilted in anybody’s favour before the May last general elections, the Supreme Court passed an interim order directing political parties to provide complete information to the Election Commission of India in sealed covers on every single donor and contribution received by them till date through electoral bonds. However, it did not stay the operation of the scheme.

Case against the electoral bond scheme by the NGO Association for Democratic Reforms (ADR)

New facts have come up indicating that the scheme was being frequently opened to allow funds to fill the coffers of the ruling party.

The scheme would be opened again now with the Delhi elections scheduled on February 8. Instead of opening the scheme exclusively for the Lok Sabha elections, as envisaged, it had become a mechanism to funnel benami funds to fuel political parties. Over Rs.6,000 crore had been drawn in through the scheme recently.

Both the Election Commission of India (ECI) and the Reserve Bank of India (RBI) had strongly objected to the scheme and raised the red flag against it.

The court should consider the scheme with a new eye as many novel and disturbing facts had come to the fore since April 12.

95% of the payments through electoral bonds till date had been routed to the BJP. The ECI submitted that a lion’s share of the contributions via electoral bonds had gone to the ruling party.

What is the govt.’s stand vis-a-vis Election Commission?

The government has justified the scheme as an experiment to eradicate black money.

It claimed that the impact of the EBS would be known only after the 2019 Lok Sabha polls. It should meanwhile be allowed a free hand to execute its policy and the apex court should not pass any orders in the matter for the present.

The government’s position is in stark contrast to the ECI’s stand. The ECI has expressed reservations about the transparency in political funding. It submitted to the apex court that electoral bonds legalised anonymity of political donors and the parties receiving contributions. It maintained that the right to vote also meant the right to make an informed choice. It said that knowing the candidate was only “half the exercise”. The voters should also know the source of funding of political parties who prop up these candidates.

Source: The Hindu

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