Furnish data of all electoral bonds in 2 weeks: SC to EC

THE Supreme Court on Thursday reserved the pleas challenging the validity of Central government's electoral bond scheme, directing the Election Commission to provide within two weeks all data on donations that political parties received through the scheme till September 30 this year.

- JAISON WILSON

A five-judge constitution bench led by Chief Justice DY Chandrachud said the electoral bonds scheme for funding political parties should not become a tool for "legitimisation of quid pro quo" between power centres and people who are benefactors of that power, stressing the need for reducing the cash component in the electoral process.

After hearing for three days the pleas against the Centre's scheme introduced in 2017, the bench also comprising Justices Sanjiv Khanna, B R Gavai, J B Pardiwala and Manoj Misra reserved its verdict on a batch of pleas filed by Congress leader Jaya Thakur, the Communist Party of India (Marxist) and NGO Association for Democratic Reforms (ADR), among others.

During the hearing, the bench also said that at this stage, it will not ask the State Bank of India to reveal the identity of the donors, but it would like to know about the quantum of bonds subscribed.