Supreme Court agrees to hear case against electoral bonds

The Supreme Court has agreed to hear a public interest litigation of 2019 which challenged the legality of the anonymous electoral bonds scheme introduced by the Modi government to fund political parties.

Chief Justice of India NV Ramana said the delay in hearing the case was due to the lockdown and Covid-19 conditions. The bond scheme was announced in Arun Jaitley's budget speech on February 1, 2017, rolled out in 2018 and PIL filed in 2019, the year of the general elections and a year before the first lock down.

CJI Ramana told advocate Prashant Bhushan on Tuesday that SC would hear the case but did not commit to a date or period. "We would have heard it earlier but for Covid," the CJI said.

The Finance Acts, 2016 and 2017, passed as money bills set the stage for introduction of the scheme in 2018. Political parties were given the chance to raise funds from corporations, Indian and foreign. The donor details remain anonymous, as per the scheme. BJP is estimated to have received the major share of such donations, according to estimates.

The Association for Democratic Reforms and CPI-M challenged the scheme's opaque nature. The petitions have been pending since 2019. Subsequent amendments have removed donation limits for corporate entities and the government has since announced the 20th tranche of the scheme from April 1-10.