New Delhi: The Supreme Court will pass an order on the legality of the electoral bonds scheme on Friday. The court has heard the arguments from the Centre and the petitioners.
The petitioners have moved the court seeking either a stay on the scheme or some other transparent alternative for funding of political parties.
The government’s electoral bond scheme for political funding is a “policy decision” and it can’t be “faulted” for taking it, the Centre on Thursday told the Supreme Court, which reserved the order on a PIL challenging its validity.
A bench headed by Chief Justice Ranjan Gogoi said it would pronounce its order Friday on the plea filed by NGO, Association of Democratic Reforms (ADR).
The NGO, which has challenged the validity of the scheme, has sought interim relief including that either the issuance of electoral bonds be stayed or the names of the donors be made public to ensure transparency in the poll process.
Attorney General K K Venugopal, appearing for the Centre, supported the scheme saying the purpose behind it is to eliminate the use of black money in elections.
“So far as the electoral bond scheme is concerned, it is the matter of policy decision of the government and no government can be faulted for taking policy decision,” Venugopal said, adding the court can scrutinize the scheme after elections.
The Centre and the Election Commission had taken contrary stands in the Supreme Court on Wednesday over political funding with the government wanting to maintain anonymity of the donors of electoral bonds and the poll panel batting for revealing the names of donors for transparency.
“We have no policy of state funding of elections. Funds are received from supporters, affluent persons and companies. They all want their political party to win. If their party does not win then they apprehend some repercussions and hence secrecy or anonymity is required,” Venugopal had told the bench. The EC, represented by senior lawyer Rakesh Dwivedi, had opposed Centre’s submissions and said secrecy allowed in the electoral bonds scheme “legalises anonymity”. (Agencies)
