The Supreme Court Tuesday said it will hear on April 2 the petitions which have challenged the issuance of electoral bonds by the government.
The matter came up for hearing before a bench comprising Chief Justice Ranjan Gogoi and Justices Deepak Gupta and Sanjiv Khanna.
The bench told advocate Prashant Bhushan, appearing for one of the petitioners, Association for Democratic Reforms (ADR), an NGO, that the matter would be heard by an appropriate bench on April 2.
"We will not be sitting in this combination. We will list the case before another bench next week," it said.
ADR recently filed an application in the apex court seeking stay on the Electoral Bond Scheme, 2018 which was notified by the Centre in January last year.
It said amendments carried out in relevant Acts have "opened the floodgates to unlimited corporate donations to political parties and anonymous financing by Indian as well as foreign companies which can have serious repercussions on the Indian democracy".
The application further said: "Electoral bonds are being made available for a large number of days in three months leading to general elections in the country scheduled to be held...in April-May 2019 to constitute the 17th Lok Sabha.
"It is expected that 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."
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