New Delhi, March 26 (IANS) The Delhi High Court on Tuesday said it will hear on April 2 petitions challenging the electoral bond scheme.
A bench comprising Chief Justice Ranjan Gogoi, Justices Deepak Gupta and Sanjiv Khanna said the matter would be heard by an appropriate bench.
One of petitioners, Association for Democratic Reforms (ADR)'s advocate Prashant Bhushan told the court that 95 per cent of the electoral bonds sold so far have been in favour of one ruling political party. He called it a form of kickbacks before the elections.
He said most of the bonds purchased since 2018 have been in the category of Rs 10 lakh and 1 crore, indicating that it is not common citizens but corporates who have been buying these bonds while enjoying complete anonymity accorded by the electoral bond scheme.
As per the said scheme, an electoral bond is an instrument issued in the nature of promissory note -- it may be purchased by a citizen of India or entities incorporated or established in India. The bonds are issued in multiples of Rs 1,000, Rs 10,000, Rs 1 lakh, Rs 10 lakhs and Rs 1 crore.
"These are available at specified branches of State Bank of India and any KYC-compliant account holder can buy these bonds," the petition said.
Bhushan has argued that this scheme has been introduced even as Election Commission has registered strong reservations.
He said that these electoral bonds are being made available in the last three months leading to the general election scheduled in April-May.
"It is expected that the enormous amount of corporate funding would be received by political parties in April and May and this would play a critical role in the elections. It is known that corporate financiers use their clout to get lucrative contracts and get laws passed for their profits, often at the cost of public interest," Bhushan said.
"That is why many corporates are keen to fund political parties," he said.
The petitioner NGOs have challenged various amendments to the Companies Act, Income Tax Act, Representation of the People Act, Reserve Bank of India Act and Foreign Contribution Regulations Act.
About Gopi
Gopi Adusumilli is a Programmer. He is the editor of SocialNews.XYZ and President of AGK Fire Inc.
He enjoys designing websites, developing mobile applications and publishing news articles on current events from various authenticated news sources.
When it comes to writing he likes to write about current world politics and Indian Movies. His future plans include developing SocialNews.XYZ into a News website that has no bias or judgment towards any.
He can be reached at gopi@socialnews.xyz