Supreme Court issues notice to Centre on introduction of electoral bonds

Supreme Court on Friday issued notice to Centre on a plea of the Communist Party of India (Marxist) challenging electoral bonds.

A bench of Chief Justice Dipak Misra and Justices A M Khanvilkar and DY Chandrachud agreed to examine the plea of the political party challenging government decision.

The CPM has approached the Supreme Court challenging the Centre's decision to introduce electoral bonds and said the move "undermined democracy" and it would "lead to greater political corruption".

Claiming that the scheme would clean up political funding, the NDA government had announced electoral bonds in the previous budget. It met with stiff resistance from opposition parties and initial reservations from the Election Commission.

CPM general secretary Sitaram Yechury said CPM was left with no choice but to move the SC. "We took up the matter in Parliament and sought amendments to the bill when the government moved the proposal.

In an effort to bring transparency in the political funding, the government last month notified electoral bonds' scheme.

Electoral bonds would be a bearer instrument like Promissory Notes and an interest-free banking instrument, the government had announced.

OneIndia News