SC interim order asks parties to disclose funding details to EC.
CJI led Supreme Court bench in an important directive has asked al political parties to disclose the donations received through electoral bonds in a sealed cover to EC by May 30.
Passing an interim order till it finally considers on the validity of these bonds, SC said that the information to be disclosed by parties will include names of donors, banks from which the donor credited, and the amount against each donor. The sealed cover will remain with EC till further orders passed by the Court.
The Court also held that the bonds were to be issued on 10 days of January, April, July and October. It was found that the bonds issued last year exceeded this period by five days. The bonds issued on these 5 days shall be deleted, court ruled. The bench of CJI Ranjan Gogoi, Justices Deepak Gupta and Sanjiv Khanna read out the operative part of a detailed order that will be uploaded later in the day. The Court has not fixed a date yet to hear the matter further.
If the identity of the purchasers of electoral bonds meant for transparent political funding is not known, then the efforts of the government to curtail black money in elections would be "futile", the Supreme Court said Thursday.The top court reserved verdict on the plea of an NGO which has challenged the validity of the scheme and has sought that either the issuance of electoral bonds be stayed or the names of donors be made public to ensure transparency in the poll process.
The Centre vehemently supported the scheme saying that the purpose behind it is to eliminate the use of black money in elections and asked the court not to interfere with it at this stage and examine the whether it has worked or not only after the elections.
"So far as the electoral bond scheme is concerned, it is the matter of policy decision of the government and no government can be faulted for taking policy decision," it told the bench comprising Chief Justice Ranjan Gogoi and Justices Deepak Gupta and Sanjiv Khanna.
The bench asked Attorney General K K Venugopal, representing the government, as to whether bank knows the identity of purchasers at the time of issuing the electoral bonds.Venugopal answered in affirmative and then said the banks issue bonds after ascertaining KYC which is applicable for opening the bank accounts. "When the bank issues the electoral bond, does the bank have details on which bond was issued to 'X' and which bond was issued to 'Y'," the bench asked.
On getting the response in negative, the bench said, "If the identity of purchasers of bonds is not known then there will be greater ramification on the Income Tax law and all your (government's) efforts to curtail black money will be futile".
With PTI inputs
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