SC seeks data on donations through electoral bonds
The Supreme Court on Thursday directed the Election Commission to furnish data on which political parties had received how much donation through the electoral bonds scheme till September 30, while saying the scheme suffered from “serious deficiencies” and “opacity”.
However, the five-judge constitution bench made it clear that removing the deficiencies was the job of the legislature and that the court “will not step into that arena”.
The bench asked Amit Sharma, counsel for the commission, to furnish the information sought in sealed covers within two weeks.
The directions are significant because no official data has so far been available either about the scheme’s donors or the recipient political parties.
Introduced in 2018, the scheme allows the donors to remain anonymous.