On February 15, a five-judge bench of the Supreme Court declared the electoral bonds scheme unconstitutional. The scheme allowed individuals and corporations to donate money to political parties anonymously by purchasing electoral bonds from the State Bank of India (SBI). The SBI had sole access to the details of those who purchased electoral bonds, and any unencashed bonds were to be deposited in the Prime Minister Relief Fund. The scheme was introduced in 2017 by then Finance Minister Arun Jaitley as a solution to the issue of opacity in political parties’ funding. However, it was challenged in court by the Communist Party of India (Marxist), and NGOs Common Cause and ADR. The court raised several issues in its verdict. Firstly, it held that the electoral bond scheme violated t...
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