 "SC, Supreme Court")
The Supreme Court on Monday will hear a batch of public interest litigation (PILs) seeking a court-monitored investigation into the controversial electoral bonds scheme, which was scrapped by the top court in February.
A top court bench led by Chief Justice D Y Chandrachud on Friday took the note of the submissions made by senior lawyer Prashant Bhushan and listed the PILs for July 22.
The petitioners in this case are two NGOs - Common Cause and the Centre for Public Interest Litigation (CPIL).
In addition to these, another similar plea will also be taken up together on July 22.
The PIL by the two NGOs alleges ‘quid pro quo’ between political parties, corporations, and investigative agencies. This means that they suspect an arranged exchange of services or favours between the involved parties.
The PILs have labelled the scheme as ‘scam’ and demanded a probe into the source of funding of the “shell companies and loss-making companies which made donations to various political parties”.
More From This Section
 "Jaya Parvati Vrat 2024")
 "Microsoft error")
 "Sexual harassment, harassment")
 "Army soldiers patrol near the highly militarized Line of Control dividing Kashmir between India and Pakistan, in Pallanwal sector, about 75 kilometers from Jammu")
 "Protest, NEET Protest, Kolkata protest")
It also sought direction to the authorities to recover the donated money by the involved companies where “these are found to be proceeds of crime”.
What is the electoral bonds scheme case?
On February 15, the apex court delivered a unanimous judgement striking the scheme down, noting that it was “unconstitutional”.
The data about the donations were furnished by the authorised institution for the scheme, the State of Bank of India, and was later made public on the Election Commission’s website after the top court’s judgement.
The scheme, an anonymous mode of funding to political parties in India, was first introduced in 2017 in the Finance Bill by the then Finance Minister Arun Jaitley.
A timeline of the Electoral Bonds Scheme case:
In September that year, an NGO called the 'Association for Democratic Reforms’ moved to the SC challenging the policy as the lead petitioner. A month later, the top court had issued a notice to the Centre and the election body on the matter.
On January 2, 2018, the Centre notified the scheme.
In October 2023, a five judge bench of the apex court led by CJI Chandrachud commenced hearing on the pleas against the scheme.
In November 2023, the SC reserved the verdict in the case
On February 15, it annulled the policy citing the violation of Right to Information Act.
(With PTI inputs)
 "SBI, state bank of india")
 "Electoral Bond, electoral bond, bonds")
 "Mayawati")
 "Supreme Court")
