New Delhi: The Supreme Court reserved Thursday its order on a PIL challenging the government’s electoral bond scheme for political funding.
A bench headed by Chief Justice Ranjan Gogoi and comprising Justices Deepak Gupta and Sanjiv Khanna said it would pronounce its order Friday on the plea filed by NGO, ‘Association of Democratic Reforms’ (ADR).
The NGO, which has challenged the validity of the scheme, has sought interim relief including that either the issuance of electoral bonds be stayed or the names of the donors be made public to ensure transparency in the poll process.
Attorney General KK Venugopal, appearing for the Centre, supported the scheme saying the purpose behind it is to eliminate the use of black money in elections.
“So far as the electoral bond scheme is concerned, it is the matter of policy decision of the government and no government can be faulted for taking policy decision,” Venugopal said and added that the court can scrutinise the scheme after elections.
However, the AG made some controversial comments according to the website ‘barandbench.com’ website. Venugopal has been quoted as saying, “Their contention is voters have a right to know. Voters have a right to know what? Voters don’t need to know where money of political parties comes from.
The bench however was quick to ask Venugopal as to how electoral bonds would curb black money. After a brief dialogue with Venugopal, the CJI at one point said, “The entire effort to fight black money becomes futile.”