Secret Source Of Funds

On April 12, the Supreme Court issued an interim order refusing to stay the anonymous electoral bonds scheme while also directing political parties to provide details of donations received through such bonds in a sealed cover to the Election Commission by May 30, a week after the results of the Lok Sabha poll are declared.

- Kaushik Deka

This means that information on donors of electoral bonds will not be available to the public before the polls.

In effect, the Supreme Court order rejected the plea of the petitioners—the CPI(M) and Association of Democratic Reforms—that the names of donors of electoral bonds be made public to ensure transparency in the poll process. The petition was filed last year, immediately after the launch of the electoral bond scheme. It had sought interim measures from the SC on the basis that these anonymous bonds could offer unfair advantage in election season, as apparent in the pattern that one political party was the beneficiary of most of the bonds purchased.

The apex court contended that if the identity of the buyers of electoral bonds was not known, the efforts of the government to curtail black money in elections would be rendered futile. The SC, however, did not issue a final verdict as Chief Justice Ranjan Gogoi was of the opinion that the “weighty” issue required more time and arguments.