IN A landmark verdict delivered within hand-shaking distance of the Lok Sabha polls, the Supreme Court on Thursday scrapped the Modi Government’s electoral bonds scheme of anonymous political funding, terming it“unconstitutional” and ordering disclosure of the names of the purchasers, value of the bonds and their recipients. Holding that the 2018 scheme was “violative” of the constitutional right to freedom of speech and expression and right to information, a fivejudge constitution bench headed by Chief Justice D Y Chandrachud did not agree with the Centre’s contention that it was meant to bring about transparency and curb black money in political funding. Ordering closure of the scheme forthwith, the top court also directed the State Bank of India, the authorised financial institution under the scheme, to submit by March 6 the details of electoral bonds purchased since April 12, 2019 till date to the Election Commission, which will publish the information on its official website by March 13.

 

Under the electoral bonds scheme, ruling parties can coerce people and entities to contribute, the apex court said and rejected as“erroneous” the Centre’s argument that it protects confidentiality of the contributor which is akin to the system of secret ballot. “The electoral bond scheme and the impugned provisions to the extent that they infringe upon the right to information of the voter by anonymizing contributions through electoral bonds are violative of Article 19(1)(a) (freedom of speech and expression) of the Constitution,” said the bench, also comprising Justices Sanjiv Khanna, B R Gavai, J B Pardiwala and Manoj Misra, in its verdict delivered months ahead of the Lok Sabha polls. The Lok Sabha polls are likely in April-May this year. In its two separate but unanimous verdicts cumulatively spanning 232 pages, the top court also directed the SBI to share details, including the “date of purchaseofeachelectoralbond, the name of the purchaser ofthe bond and the denominationoftheelectoralbond purchased”.

 

“SBI shall submit the details of political parties which have received contributions through electoral bondssincetheinterimorder of this court dated April 12, 2019 till date to the ECI. SBI mustdisclosedetailsofeach electoral bond encashed by political parties which shall include the date of encashmentandthedenomination of the electoral bond,” the benchsaid.OnApril12,2019, theapex court hadissuedan interim order directing that theinformationaboutdonationsreceivedanddonations which will be received must besubmittedbypoliticalparties totheECina sealedcover. The court ordered that uncashed electoral bonds, which are within the validity period of 15 days, shall be returnedbythepoliticalparty or the purchaser to the issuing bank which in turn shall refund the amount to the purchaser’s account. Thejudgementreferredto the annual audit reports of political parties from 2017- 18 to 2022-23 which showed party-wise donations received through such bonds.

 

The BJP received Rs 6,566.11 crore during this period, while the Congress gotRs1,123.3crore.TheTMC received in its kitty Rs 1,092.98 crore during the same period. The CJI, who authored a 152-pagejudgementforhimself and onbehalf ofJustices Gavai, Pardiwala and Misra, said, “The electoral bond scheme, the proviso to section 29C(1) of the RepresentationofthePeople Act1951(asamendedbysection137ofFinanceAct2017), section 182(3) of the Companies Act (as amended by section 154 of the Finance Act 2017), and section 13A(b) (as amended by section 11 of Finance Act 2017) are violative of Article 19(1)(a) and unconstitutional.” It said the deletion of a provision in the Companies Act permitting unlimited corporate contributions to political parties was“arbitrary andviolative” of Article 14 (right to equality) of the Constitution.