'Reinforces power of votes over notes...' Congress on SC verdict striking down the electoral bonds scheme

The Congress has welcomed the Supreme Court verdict striking down the electoral bonds scheme, calling it "unconstitutional”. Moments after the verdict, Congress leader Jairam Ramesh took to social media platform X to say, "The Supreme Court has held the much-touted Electoral Bonds scheme of the Modi Sarkar as violative of both laws passed by Parliament as well as the Constitution of India. The long-awaited verdict is hugely welcome and will reinforce the power of votes over notes. The Modi Sarkar has been inflicting ANYAY upon ANYAY on the Annadatas while privileging the Chandadatas."

"We also hope that the Supreme Court will take note that the Election Commission has been consistently refusing to even meet political parties on the issue of Voter Verifiable Paper Audit Trail (VVPAT). If everything is transparent in the voting process then why this obstinacy," he asked.

The Supreme Court, in its ruling, instructed the State Bank of India (SBI) to cease issuing electoral bonds and mandated the submission of details for all bonds acquired since the court's interim order of April 12, 2019, to the Election Commission. The five-judge Constitutional bench deemed the alterations in the law allowing unrestricted funding for political parties as arbitrary.

Additionally, the Supreme Court declared that the government's rationale for addressing the issue of black money through electoral bonds lacks justification.

Electoral bonds, which are interest-free bearer instruments facilitating anonymous donations to political parties, were introduced during the 2017 Union Budget under the tenure of the late Arun Jaitley as Finance Minister.

The constitutional bench, comprising Chief Justice of India DY Chandrachud, Justices Sanjiv Khanna, BR Gavai, JB Pardiwala, and Manoj Misra, had reserved its verdict on the matter on November 2 of the previous year.

Transparency advocates have expressed concerns that the anonymity of electoral bonds obscures the identification of individuals, companies, or organizations financing political parties and the extent of their contributions. Previously, parties were required to disclose information about donors who contributed more than Rs 20,000. Nevertheless, the government has advocated for bonds as an alternative to cash donations, aiming to enhance transparency and accountability in political funding.