Apprehensions were expressed soon after the judgment about the possibility that the disclosures may not happen. FEBRUARY 15, 2024, will be remembered as an important day in the history of democracy in India. The Supreme Court delivered a judgment declaring the Electoral Bond Scheme (EBS) unconstitutional. “The issuing bank shall herewith stop the issuance of […]
The landmark judgment of the Supreme Court of India is a reminder that citizens need to be ever watchful in a democracy ‘The issue of money in elections, which includes the use of black money and bribing of voters using campaign funds and freebies, still remains’. The judgment of the Supreme Court of India, on […]
The pre-2017 electoral funding system was far from perfect, but distortions like electoral bonds exacerbate the problem The Supreme Court, in a landmark decision on February 15, declared the electoral bonds scheme introduced by the previous Narendra Modi-led National Democratic Alliance (NDA) government in 2017, unconstitutional. The judgment has stirred a hornet’s nest with all kinds […]
Will the government bring an ordinance to overrule the SC judgement? Unlikely, because all the amendments done to various acts – IT Act, Companies Act, RPA 1951 – have been struck down as unconstitutional. Moreover, SC has upheld the citizens right to know on sources of political funding. Hence any future scheme introduced to curb […]
A lot of us seem to have forgotten that political parties, elections and democracy existed even before 2017 – and so before the existence of electoral bonds. Though introduced in 2017, Electoral Bonds (EBs) seem to have become a popular topic in the national discourse ever since the recent three-day hearing in the Supreme Court […]
Noting that electoral bonds pose a grave threat to transparency in political fundings, the Association of Democratic Reforms (ADR) on Wednesday said that they are ‘extremely damaging to the Indian democracy’. “The Finance Minister had said these bonds will be in the nature of a bearer bond, the identity of the donor will be kept […]
State Bank of India (SBI) has once again refused to divulge details, sought under the Right to Information (RTI) Act, 2005, of the Electoral Bond (EB) sale data of donors and recipient political parties, even though admitting that whatever little information it had was “goofed up” while handing it over to senior RTI activist, Venkatesh […]
While agreeing that the information officer made a mistake on electoral bonds sales data, the bank has said it won’t give information on donors and recipient political parties under the RTI. In June 2018, the State Bank of India (SBI) refused to disclose information about the buyers of electoral bonds (EBs) and the political parties […]
With the introduction of electoral bonds, Electoral Trusts are no longer required to reveal the name(s) of the party to which donations are given. If a government makes policy, budget allocations or tax rules that favour donors over the public, we will not even know who the donors were. Behind all the debates on election […]
Political parties are often able to exercise supreme power with impunity, even while blatantly defying statutory authorities. A dictionary defines ‘sovereignty’ as “the quality or the state of being sovereign, or of having supreme power or authority; supreme or independent power or authority in government as possessed or claimed by a state or community”. So […]