16-10-2023 : On Monday, the Supreme Court of India made a significant decision by referring a series of pleas challenging the electoral bond scheme for political party funding to a five-judge Constitution bench. This move comes in response to an application requesting the urgent transfer of the matter to a larger bench for a definitive judgment. The bench, comprising Chief Justice D Y Chandrachud and justices J B Pardiwala and Manoj Misra, scheduled the hearing for October 30, adhering to the previously fixed date.
The genesis of this referral can be traced back to the recognition of the matter’s significance by lawyer Prashant Bhushan, who emphasized the need for its adjudication before the electoral bond scheme becomes operational for the 2024 general elections. As a result, the bench had decided to earmark the case for a final hearing.
The issue at hand revolves around four Public Interest Litigations (PILs) that challenge the validity of the electoral bond scheme. One of the petitioners in a PIL, earlier this year, asserted that an astonishing sum of Rs 12,000 crore has already been disbursed to political parties through these electoral bonds, with a substantial two-thirds of this amount directed towards a single major political party.
The electoral bond system was initially introduced as an alternative to cash donations, aimed at enhancing transparency in the realm of political funding. The bonds were conceived as a mechanism to make political contributions more traceable and accountable, and to reduce the influence of illicit or undisclosed funding in Indian politics.