The two-judge Supreme Court bench of Justices BR Gavai and BV Nagarathna will consider petitions challenging electoral bonds on December 6.?

The SC on Friday said it would consider on Dec. 6 whether the pleas need to be referred to a larger bench. The pleas are pending since 2018.

The petitions against electoral bonds have been filed by non-governmental organisations —Association for Democratic Reforms (ADR) and Common Cause— and CPI (Marxist).

The SC said this is an important matter and sought assistance of the Attorney General (AG) and Solicitor General (SC) in the matter. SC Tushar Mehta submitted before the bench that the methodology of receiving money through electoral bonds is very transparent.?

Electoral bonds have been pitched as an alternative to cash donations made to political parties as part of efforts to bring transparency in political funding. Advocate Prashant Bhushan, appearing for one of the petitioners, on April 5 had mentioned the matter before the then-Chief Justice of India NV Ramana, saying the issue was critical and needed an urgent hearing. The SC had agreed to list the plea for hearing but it did not come up before any court.

Earlier, Bhushan had sought an urgent listing of the PIL from the apex court on October 4 last year seeking a direction to the Centre not to open any further window for sale of electoral bonds during the pendency of a case pertaining to funding of political parties and alleged lack of transparency in their accounts.?

As per the SC Observer, the two questions being considered in the petitions are:

1. Was introducing the Electoral Bond Scheme as a Finance Act and thereby bypassing the Rajya Sabha, justified?
2. Does the scheme facilitate unaccounted anonymous political donations by corporations?

The case against electoral bonds stems from the belief that they are not transparent as they keep the identity of the donor secret.

"An electoral bond, like a promissory note, is a bearer instrument payable to the bearer on demand. It can be used by individuals and corporations incorporated in India to make donations to political parties...Political parties can encash the bond within 15 days. The identity of the donor is anonymous and only known only to the bank," reports SC Observer, adding that bonds can be purchased in denominations from Rs 1,000 to Rs 1 crore with nu upper limit.

(With PTI inputs)