Democracy - Has It Been Strengthened?

The recent judgment of the Constitution Bench of the Hon'ble Supreme Court in the case of Association for Democratic Reforms Vs Union of India MANU/ SC/0112/2024 has been a topic of discussion amongst the intelligentsia.

In this landmark judgment, the Hon'ble Supreme Court held that the Electoral Bonds Scheme introduced by the Government was unconstitutional.

While some would argue that the judgment is a necessary fillip to democracy, others would argue that this would recreate the deleterious culture of using cash as a means of political funding. There is a section of folks who believe that the judgment was perhaps a tad late especially since the ruling dispensation was able to raise funds to the tune of nearly INR 6,600 crores, thereby creating a non-level playing field.

Keeping the debate aside, in this article, I intend to pen a short brief on the said judgment.

In the said judgment running to nearly 240 pages, the Hon'ble Supreme Court had considered the following issues which weave its thread across various legislations including The Companies Act, 2013 ("Cos Act"), The Representation of the Peoples Act, 1951 ("RPA") and the Income-tax Act, 1961 ("IT Act"):

i. Whether unlimited corporate funding to political parties, as envisaged by the amendment to Section 182(1) of the Companies Act, 2013 infringes the principle of free and fair elections and violates Article 14 of the Constitution? and 

ii. Whether the non-disclosure of information on voluntary contributions to political parties under the Electoral Bond Scheme and the amendments to Section 29C of the RPA, Section 182(3) of the Cos Act and Section 13A(b) of the IT Act are violative of the right to information of citizens under Article 19(1)(a) of the Constitution.

In the judgment, the Hon'ble Supreme Court upheld certain key principles in law, which merit consideration. These principles would now be a guiding light in the interpretation of the constitutional provisions.