ELECTORAL BOND VERDICT NEEDS POLITICAL RESOLVE

The Supreme Court’s verdict on electoral bonds must be taken forward by the government as the first step towards larger electoral reforms

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THE judgment of the Supreme Court in Association for Democratic Reforms vs Union of India that banned the Electoral Bond System EBS) is also a treatise on the subject. Chief Justice D Y Chandrachud has nicely explained the complex legal issues in his characteristic style so that anyone concerned with India’s democratic polity can read it and get into various dimensions of the topic. Itis an instance of constitutional adjudication rooted in contemporary economic and political realities. It is also a case of legitimate judicial activism of our times. The judgment has reinvented the idea of political equality and thereby reminded us about the principle of socialism, a forgotten word in the Constitution’s Preamble, in the arena of electoral politics.

To facilitate unlimited and opaque corporate funding to political parties, Parliament altered the relevant enactments. Section 182 of the Companies Act was amended and the ceiling limit on corporate funding and the requirement to show the particulars of contribution were done away with. The amendment to the Income Tax Act said that the political parties need not even maintain a record of contributions. Modifications were made in other enactments like the Reserve Bank of India Act and the Representation of the People Act. Thus, a new regime of dubious economy came into being, which controlled not only the elections but the politics of the country.