Lagatar24 Desk
New Delhi, Oct 14: The Central Government informed the Supreme Court on Friday that the electoral bonds programme it had proposed for financing political parties was the most transparent.
There is no room for black money in the electoral bonds plan, Solicitor General (SG) Tushar Mehta asserted in court before Justices BR Gavai and BV Nagarathna, speaking on behalf of the Central government.
“Methodology of donation is so transparent, it is impossible to get black money..It is most transparent and to say it strikes at democracy is wrong,” the SG contended.
In his response, he addressed Prashant Bhushan’s claim that the case addresses fundamental questions of democracy.
These issues strike at the root of our democracy. We have challenged amendments allowing electoral bonds, unlimited donations even by subsidiaries and retrospective changes to Foreign Contribution Regulation Act,” Bhushan said.
SC posts for Dec 6 pleas challenging provisions of Finance Act 2017 which paved way for anonymous electoral bonds.
Centre tells SC that methodology of electoral bonds is absolutely transparent mode of political funding & it is impossible to get black money or unaccounted money. pic.twitter.com/lbvULBxAJM
— ANI (@ANI) October 14, 2022
In addition to representing the petitioners, senior counsel Kapil Sibal argued that given the significance of the concerns presented, a bigger panel may need to hear the case.
According to the Court, it will initially consider arguments regarding a larger bench. There is no urgent need, according to Attorney General R. Venkataramani, who asked the Court to schedule the case in January 2023.
Bhushan, Sibal, and Senior Attorney Sanjay Hedge made the observation that the announcement of the Gujarat polls today and the hearing in January would result in more bond sales.
The SG emphasised that a Constitution Bench is already scheduled to convene in November. The matter was eventually listed by the Court on December 6.
