In a huge development, the Supreme Court of India struck down the electoral bonds procedure and called it “Unconstitutional”. The court mentioned that electoral bonds are against basic constitutional rights and need to be taken down immediately. The apex court banned the existence of electoral bonds, incidentally, weeks before the general election.
For the unversed, electoral bonds, introduced by the Modi government in 2017, are anonymous donations made to political parties. These bonds can be bought at the SBI facilities across the country and anyone can buy them. These bonds serve as donations to political parties as individuals and corporations can openly buy them, thus financially contributing to whichever party they wish. Only SBI will bear the details of the buyer, meaning the details of the transaction is extremely private.
The Supreme Court opined that these bonds can be used for money laundering as the details of the source(buyer) are very private.
The program had come under severe scrutiny from the very day it was launched as it is estimated that political parties garnered hundreds of crores of rupees through these mystery transactions. Reportedly, the BJP government is the biggest benefactor of the program, and the new ruling of the SC could come as a shocker to the party.
The apex court struck down the electoral bonds, saying they are violative of the Right To Information and Article 19(1)(A).
