New Delhi: Supreme Court Quashes Electoral Bonds Scheme; Calls It 'Unconstitutional'

NEW DELHI: In a significant boost to transparency, the Supreme Court ruled a landmark verdict on Thursday by quashing the electoral bonds scheme.

A five-judge panel of the apex court, including Chief Justice of India DY Chandrachud and Justices Sanjiv Khanna, BR Gavai, JB Pardiwala, and Manoj Misra, made the unanimous decision of declaring the Electoral bonds scheme as unconstitutional.

This move comes in the wake of a group of requests directed towards the Supreme court. The requests questioned the legal legitimacy of the Electoral Bonds Scheme established by the Union Government, allowing undisclosed funding for political parties.

At the onset of the ruling, CJI D.Y.Chandrachud stated that his perspective on the case differed from that of Justice Sanjiv Khanna. However, both of them came to the same conclusion.

The apex court stated that the petitions raised two primary concerns, whether the amendments breach the right to information as per Article 19(1)(a), and whether the unrestrained corporate funding undermines free and fair elections.

While delivering the verdict, Justice Chandrachud stated that the Supreme court found the anonymous electoral bonds to violate the Right to Information and Article 19(1)(a).

In its ruling, the apex court said that the details of corporate contributors through electoral bonds must be disclosed, as the donations from companies are only for the purpose of quid pro quo.

The top court ruled that the amendments to the companies act permitting companies to donate unrestricted political contributions are random and stands against the constitution.

In its verdict, the apex court asserted that violating the Right to Information cannot be justified in order to curb black money.

The Supreme court instructed banks to immediately stop the issuance of Electoral Bonds and mandated the State Bank of India (SBI) to release information on electoral bonds availed by political parties.

The court ordered the SBI to share the details with the Election Commission of India, and the ECI will then make these details public on its website.

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