SC to rule on validity of electoral bonds today

April 12, 2019 08:02

The Supreme Court will today deliver its verdict on a plea challenging the validity of electoral bonds.

The plea, filed by an NGO, 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.

During Thursdays hearing, the top court had contended that 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 Centre had vehemently supported the scheme in court, saying 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," the government told the bench comprising Chief Justice Ranjan Gogoi and Justices Deepak Gupta and Sanjiv Khanna.

The bench asked Attorney General KK 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.

The Centre and the Election Commission had taken contrary stands in the Supreme Court on Wednesday over political funding with the government wanting to maintain anonymity of the donors of electoral bonds and the poll panel batting for revealing the names of donors for transparency.

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