SC admits CPI(M)’s plea against electoral bonds

SC admits CPI(M)’s plea against electoral bonds

Context

The Supreme Court on Friday admitted a petition filed by the CPI(M) and party general secretary Sitaram Yechury to strike down the government’s Electoral Bond Scheme 2018 and amendments in the Finance Act, 2017, which allows for “unlimited donations from individuals and foreign companies to political parties without any record of the sources of funding”

Plea says amendments made to Finance Act ‘jeopardises the very foundation of Indian democracy’

The petition said that the requirement of disclosure of electoral bonds, the names and addresses of their contributors in the account statement of political parties is omitted by the amendment to the Representation of the People Act of 1951.

Corporate donations made secretive

Further, the petition said the system of corporate donations has been made correspondingly “secretive by removing the requirement of disclosure of the names of political parties to whom contributions have been made by amendment to the Companies Act, 2003.”

Promoting Quid pro quo arrangements

In effect, at both ends of the transaction, neither the contributor nor the recipient of the fund is required to disclose the identity of the other… Quid pro quo arrangements, not unknown to Indian polity, will only be strengthened

Removal of any ceiling on the donation amount

• The amendment to the Companies Act results in the removal of any ceiling on the amount for donation by a company to a political party.
• It allows a company to be eligible as a political contributor regardless of whether the company is making profits or losses.

Passage of the amendments as Money bill also challenged

Challenging the passage of the amendments as a Money Bill, the petition recalls the words of the Finance Minister that the changes in laws were meant to introduce transparency and reduce the usage of black money in financing political parties.

The scheme helps in increasing black money

Instead of incentivising political party contributors to forego black money, the scheme actually allows them to continue to bury their unaccounted wealth with political parties, the petition said.