Will The SC Strike On Electoral Bonds Impact 2024 Elections?

In his 70s, war veteran, Commodore Lokesh Batra, has continued fighting the battle for the citizen’s right to information, especially information on political parties that seek votes. The retired veteran was among the few who had been raising questions for the past six years on electoral bonds as a campaigner for transparency in politics and governance.

On Thursday, the years of research, questioning, and public engagement by Commodore Batra and other activists bore fruit as the Supreme Court of India the Supreme Court on Thursday struck down Electoral Bonds that allowed political parties to get allowed for anonymous funding.

Ruling on the case “Association for Democratic Reforms and Anr vs Union of India Cabinet Secretary and ors”, the five-judge Constitution bench comprising Chief Justice of India (CJI) DY Chandrachud, and Justices B. R. Gavai, J. B. Pardiwala, Sanjiv Khanna, and Manoj Misra “unanimously quashed the scheme as well as amendments made to the Income Tax Act and the Representation of People Act which had made the donations anonymous” reported legal portal Bar and Bench.

The Electoral Bonds Scheme, “proviso to Section 29(1)(c) as amended by Section 139 of Income Tax Act and Section 13(b) as amended by Finance Act 2017 is violative of Article 19(1)(a),” read the judgement as quoted by news reports. The SC has also asked the State Bank of India (SBI) to release “details of the political parties which received electoral bonds”. This has to be given to the Election Commission of India (ECI) by March 6, and the EC has to also publish this information by March 13.

According to B&B the Court ordered that “Political parties should thereafter return the Electoral bonds which have not been encashed and the issuing bank should then refund the amount to the donor's account”. The scheme will “help the party in power to gain advantage” stated the SC.

Words of warning that Commodore Batra had sounded for years, and with greater intensity this year, much before the landmark judgement on Thursday.

He had stated that the total value of EBs sold in F.Y. 2023–2024, when elections are due, till Jan-2024 was over Rs.4509 crore. This he stated was a “huge jump from the total Value of EBs Sold In F.Y. 2022–2023 that was over Rs. 2800 crore.”

Speaking to The Citizen soon after the judgement was pronounced, Commodore Batra said that “ it was one of the most landmark judgements in my history”. He added that he had stuck to his training in the forces and even when people said he was wasting his time he stuck to his guns, “in the fauj we say never say die”.

He recalled that when the scheme was notified on January 2, 2018, Bharatiya Janata Party leader, and then Finance Minister, Arun Jaitley had claimed it would bring about transparency. “The government’s intentions were that the donor's name was not to be revealed. Four laws were amended and Electoral Bonds were one of them” recalled the veteran activist when speaking to The Citizen.

Jaitley had outlined the electoral bonds scheme in his budget speech on February 2, 2017. The Citizen had published in 2018 that the scheme “will not even meet the objective that Jaitley himself proposes for it, which is to introduce greater “transparency” into electoral funding. Instead it will immensely increase the power of the central government and thereby pose a further authoritarian threat to Indian democracy”.

An opinion by Prakash Karat, Member of the Polit Bureau of the Communist Party of India-Marxist (CPI-M), published on The Citizen, had explained “The system of electoral bonds will only facilitate corporate funding to the ruling party and open the way for legitimising bribery and corruption. Companies will have the incentive to provide huge contributions to the ruling party to earn its favour.” along with other petitioners, the CPI-M had challenged the electoral bonds scheme in the Supreme Court.

Over the years it became clear that the BJP always got a massive portion of the funding/ donations made by the sale of EBs. “Today it impacts [citizens] as money power can be used for anything by political parties. They did not go digital [there was no tracking] and Rs 16500 crore bonds sold,” Commodore Batra said, adding that ‘big donors’ can also influence policy making. As can foreign donors who also had the potential to influence as the system was not transparent.

Commodore Batra had regularly filed scores of RTIs to get more information about the EBs, and kept sharing developments on social media.

According to an analysis published by the ‘Indian Express’ it was the BJP which got the lion's share of funds via EBs. The saffron party for a whopping “Rs 6,565 crore, from 2017-2018 till 2022-2023” stated the report.

Senior congress leader Rahul Gandhi, who had also been raising the issue over the years, said for years that the “BJP had made electoral bonds a medium for taking bribes and commission”.

Gandhi had been raising the issue for years and in 2019 had called the EBs “bribes & illegal commissions”.

The Congress itself got some ‘donations’, but was far behind in the collection of funds. It is in a distant second position after having received Rs 1,123 crore as EB sale 'donations’. However, with the SC ruling it is the Opposition, led by the Congress, that has got a shot in the arm at a crucial time before the Parliamentary elections 2024 are declared.

According to the ‘Hindustan Times’ report “for the BJP, electoral bonds represent over half of its total income. The BJP surpassed the Congress as the richest political party in India since the final year of UPA-II. In the fiscal year 2013-14, the BJP's total income was ₹673.8 crore, compared to the Congress's ₹598 crore.”

Congress leader Pawan Khera shared the party’s reaction soon after the judgement came out. “What has the BJP sold in exchange for the Rs 5200 crore it received in the form of 'electoral bonds'?” Khera, asked. “Voters have a right to know how much money each party got, and it is a the duty of the political party to give that information,”

The CPI-M on its part was reportedly the only party that did not accept any donations via EBs. Veteran leader Sitaram Yechury hailed the SC verdict as historic and said EBs were “legalisation of corruption”. The party asked that “reforms for political and electoral funding are introduced to ensure transparency, clean funding and a level playing field.”

The SC has said that “the electoral bonds scheme and preceding amendments made to the Representation of People Act, Companies Act and the Income Tax Act violate the voters’ right to information about political funding under Article 19(1)(a) of the Constitution” and ordered the State of Bank of India, to stop issuance of electoral bonds herewith stated news reports.

Electoral bonds, “with a validity period of 15 days and yet to be encashed” have to be returned to the bank by political parties or purchasers, stated news report, adding that the bank will also have to “refund the amount to the purchasers’ accounts.”

According to news reports Trinamool Congress (TMC) spokesperson Kunal Ghosh told the media that the party welcomed the judgement and “People have the right to know the source of funding of political parties”.

Last year, a ‘PTI’ report had stated that “Over 96 per cent of income of the Trinamool Congress in 2021-22 came from electoral bonds, according to the party's annual audit report, which also showed that its income from these bonds rose from ₹42 crore in 2020-21 to ₹528.14 crore in 2021-22.”

Petitioner, Association for Democratic Reforms (ADR) also issued an official statement on February 15th. It filed the petition in the Supreme Court on September 4,2017. “Today’s verdict comes after nearly a wait of more than six years when the Supreme Court of India had heard the petition challenging the amendments brought by the Finance Act, 2017 for three consecutive days i.e 31st October, 1st & 2nd November, 2023” stated ADR.

The ADR also shared the highlights of the SC’s directions in the verdict. These areas follows:

I. The issuing bank shall herewith stop the issuance of Electoral Bonds;

II. SBI shall submit details of the Electoral Bonds purchased since the interim order of this Court dated 12 April 2019 till date to the ECI. The details shall include the date of purchase of each Electoral Bond, the name of the purchaser of the bond and the denomination of the Electoral Bond purchased;

III. SBI shall submit the details of political parties which have received contributions through Electoral Bonds since the interim order of this Court dated 12 April 2019 till date to the ECI. SBI must disclose details of each Electoral Bond encashed by political parties which shall include the date of encashment and the denomination of the Electoral Bond;

IV. SBI shall submit the above information to the ECI within three weeks from the date of this judgment, that is, by 6 March 2024;

V. The ECI shall publish the information shared by the SBI on its official website within one week of the receipt of the information, that is, by 13 March 2024; and

VI. Electoral Bonds which are within the validity period of fifteen days but that which have not been encashed by the political party yet shall be returned by the political party or the purchaser depending on who is in possession of the bond to the issuing bank. The issuing bank, upon return of the valid bond, shall refund the amount to the purchaser’s account

“A truly historic judgement, a victory for the voter, an assertion for free and fair elections & and the common man's right to know who funds the political parties. SC is to be congratulated for upholding Article 19 (a) of the Constitution, “ Maj Gen Anil Verma (Retd), Head of ADR, via in the group’s official statement.

A word of caution came from Prof Jagdeep Chhokar, Founder Member & Trustee of ADR, who added, “We have to remember that the infirmities which existed in the electoral system pre-2017 still have to be worked on. In the euphoria of this judgment, we must not forget or overlook ground reality.”