Have received details of funding through Electoral Bonds from various political parties, EC informs SC

The Election Commission of India (EC) on Wednesday informed the Supreme Court that it has received from various political parties in sealed covers the details of donations received by them via Electoral Bonds.

The poll panel, through an affidavit, told the apex court that it has received sealed covers from various political parties (national, state and registered unrecognised parties), and also annexed a list showing the status.

The Supreme Court had last year asked all political parties who have received donations through electoral bonds to submit details to the Election Commission of India in a sealed cover.

In an interim direction, the top court had ordered, "All the political parties who have received donations through Electoral Bonds to submit to the Election Commission of India in sealed cover detailed particulars of the donors as against the each Bond; the amount of each such bond and the full particulars of the credit received against each bond, namely, the particulars of the bank account to which the amount has been credited and the date of each such credit."

 

The Commission has also annexed the list of political parties who have submitted their annual audit reports to the poll panel which shows audited annual accounts of the political parties.

The Commission's affidavit came on an application filed by Association of Democratic Reforms (ADR) seeking stay on the implementation of the Electoral Bond Scheme, for the purpose of donations to political parties, notified by the Central government on January 2, 2018.

Last month, a bench of Chief Justice SA Bobde had refused to stay the implementation of Electoral Bonds but sought response from the poll panel.

The application was filed in the earlier pending PIL of ADR which had challenged the validity of the scheme and 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.

Advocate Prashant Bhushan appearing for ADR had contended that ruling party has been gaining thousands of crores in anonymous funding.

Bhushan had told the court that a stay was sought on account of certain facts coming to light and the RBI had flagged concerns with the scheme. He contended that the scheme could lead to funnelling of black money and lead to money laundering.

The application had sought direction to strike down certain amendments made through Finance Act, 2017 and earlier Finance Act, 2016, both passed as money bills, and which have "opened doors to unlimited political donations, even from foreign companies and thereby legitimizing electoral corruption at a huge scale, while at the same time ensuring complete non-transparency in political funding."

"Electoral Bonds Scheme has 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 Finance Act of 2017 had introduced the use of electoral bonds which is exempt from disclosure under the Representation of Peoples Act, 1951, opening doors to unchecked, unknown funding to political parties. The said amendments have also removed the existing cap of 7.5 per cent of net profit in the last 3 years on campaign donations by companies and have legalised anonymous donations," the application stated.

The application had further contended that these bonds are in the nature of bearer bonds and the identity of the donor is kept anonymous.

"Political Parties are not required to disclose the name of the person/entity donating to a party through electoral bonds. Since the bonds are bearer instruments and have to be physically given to the political parties for them to encash, parties will know who is donating to them. It is only the general citizens who will not know who is donating to which party. Thus, electoral bonds increase the anonymity of political donations," the plea added.

"The requirement of the donor companies to disclose details in their Profit & Loss account about the name of the political party to which a donation has been made is also removed. Only the total amount of donations to political parties has to be disclosed without naming the political party."

The electoral bond scheme was notified by the central government on January 2, 2018. According to the ADR website, over 12000 electoral bonds worth Rs 6128 crore were sold between March 2018 and October 2019.