AGENCIES / NEW DELHI
While Refusing to stay the process of Electoral bonds, which enable anonymous donations to political parties, the Supreme Court today asked all parties to furnish receipts and details of funds and donors in a sealed cover to the Election Commission by May 30. The details would be in the election body’s “safe custody”, the top court ruled in an interim order.
A petition by the Association of Democratic Reforms (ADR) had asked for the system of electoral bonds to be stopped or for the donors to be disclosed for the sake of transparency in the poll process.
“We have considered the matter. We examined the stand by the Election Commission. For the present, it needs hearing and it can’t be concluded in a short span of time. The court has to ensure interim arrangement and should not tilt favour of any party,” said a three-judge bench headed by Chief Justice Ranjan Gogoi.
The court also directed the finance ministry to reduce the window of the purchase of electoral bonds from 10 to five days in April-May, the period during which staggered national elections are being held.
On Thursday, the Supreme Court had said if the identity of those buying the electoral funds meant for transparent political funding was not known, the government’s efforts to check black money in polls would be futile.
The government argued to continue with the scheme, saying that the purpose was to eliminate the use of black or untaxed money in elections, that the court cannot interfere with it at this stage and should examine it only after the elections.
“Do not let transparency kill the electoral bond scheme,” said KK Venugopal, the government’s lawyer, backing anonymity of the buyer and the redeemer of electoral bonds.
Mr Venugopal said the bank knows the customer, but it does not know which bond was issued to which party.
Anonymity of donors of electoral bonds needs to be maintained for reasons including fear of repercussions on a firm or an individual if the other political party or group wins, the government said.
“It is not voters’ concern to know where the money comes from. Transparency cannot be looked as a ”mantra”. What are the realities of the country? This is a scheme that will eliminate black money from the elections,” said Mr Venugopal, adding that the donors also had a right to privacy.
The electoral bond scheme, notified in January last year, allows the purchase of electoral bonds that a political party can receive and encash through a bank account.
The bonds can be bought at a bank in denominations ranging from Rs. 1,000 to Rs. 10 million, and given to a political party, which can exchange them for cash.
The Election Commission had opposed the bonds saying it would “open the floodgates to unlimited corporate donations to political parties and anonymous financing by Indian as well as foreign companies, which can have serious repercussions on the Indian democracy.”