Supreme Court dismisses plea to stay sale of electoral bonds ahead of assembly polls

The Supreme Court on Friday dismissed a plea seeking stay on further sale of electoral bonds ahead of assembly elections.

A bench headed by Chief Justice S A Bobde declined to stay sale of the electoral bonds as sought in the application moved by the NGO, Association for Democratic Reforms.

The Centre had earlier told the bench, also comprising Justices A S Bopanna and V Ramasubramanian, that the bonds would be issued from April 1 to April 10.

The NGO had claimed that there is a serious apprehension that any further sale of electoral bonds before the upcoming assembly elections, including in West Bengal and Assam, would further increase illegal and illicit funding of political parties through shell companies .

The NGO was represented by advocate Prashant Bhushan.

ADR had urged the top court to direct the Centre not to open any further window for sale of electoral bonds under the Electoral Bond Scheme, 2018, during the pendency of its writ petition.

The petitioner said it filed an intervention application in March 2019 and also in November 2019. In October, last year, the organization filed an application for early hearing in view of the upcoming Bihar elections then.

However, the matter has not been listed for more than a year now.

"the 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 plea argued.

with agency inputs