-The Hindu Court wanted to earlier take up a long-pending challenge against the government’s electoral bonds scheme, but the COVID-19 pandemic played spoilsport, says CJI N.V. Ramana Chief Justice of India N.V. Ramana on Tuesday told advocate Prashant Bhushan that the court wanted to take up earlier a long-pending challenge against the government’s electoral bonds scheme, but the COVID-19 pandemic played spoilsport. Mr. Bhushan, who represents petitioner Association for Democratic Reforms, informed the...
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Needed: full disclosure on electoral bonds -Rakesh Dubbudu and Inayat Sabhikhi
-The Hindu The Supreme Court’s suggestion to ‘match the following’ on political donations is impractical and incorrect In 2014, the Delhi High Court held that both the Congress and the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) were guilty of illegally accepting donations from two companies registered in India but whose controlling shareholder was Vedanta, a foreign company. The court held that this was in contravention of the Foreign Contribution (Regulation) Act (FCRA), 1976, as...
More »Here is why the electoral bonds scheme must go -Gautam Bhatia
-The Hindu It violates the basic tenets of India’s democracy by keeping the knowledge of the ‘right to know’ from citizens and voters The Supreme Court, after a brief hearing on March 24, reserved orders on the question of whether or not to stay the electoral bond scheme, ahead of the upcoming State elections. For the last three years, electoral bonds have been the dominant method of political party funding in India....
More »Ensuring trust in the electoral process -Anjali Bhardwaj and Amrita Johri
-The Hindu It is critical that the Supreme Court immediately adjudicates on the electoral bonds scheme The Election Commission of India has announced dates for elections to five Legislative Assemblies. It is a matter of grave concern that the petition challenging the electoral bonds scheme, which deals with the vexed issue of election funding, continues to languish in the Supreme Court. The delay in adjudicating on the case filed in September 2017...
More »How opaque electoral bonds edge out transparent funding routes for 7 political parties
-Moneylife.in More and more big donors of political parties, including corporates, are using the electoral bond (EB) route for making large-sized donations due to the anonymity that provides to the donors. In fact, the annual audit reports for 2018-19 of seven political parties as published by the Election Commission of India (ECI) shows that they have received more than 50% of their donations through electoral bonds, reveals an analysis by Ventakesh...
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