Supreme Court: In the case relating to electoral bond scheme, the full bench of Dr. DY Chandrachud, CJ., JB Pardiwala and Manoj Misra, JJ. referred the matter to Constitution Bench.
As per the press release issued by the Ministry of Finance, the Government has notified the scheme of Electoral Bonds to cleanse the system of political funding in the country. The electoral bond would be a bearer instrument in the nature of a promissory note and an interest free banking instrument. A citizen of India or a body incorporated in India will be eligible to purchase the bond.
Electoral bonds were introduced through the Finance Act, 2017. To enable the introduction of these bonds, the Finance Act, 2017 amended 4 Statutes:
Various petitions were filed before the Court challenging the amendments made to different statutes through the Finance Act, 2017 as they have opened doors to unlimited, unconstrained funding of political parties. The said Finance Act was passed as a money bill, not requiring the assent of the Rajya Sabha. Thus, the petitions also raised an issue that the Finance Act could not be passed as a money bill.
In 2021, the Court dismissed the application seeking a stay on the electoral bonds scheme.
During the hearing on 10-10-2023 the Court debated whether to refer the matter to the Constitution bench but due to the urgency of the case, it decided against it. However, the Court decided to refer it to a Constitution bench due to the issue involved relating to passage of laws as money bill.
The matter will be taken up on 31-10-2023.
Source: Press
