New Delhi: Ahead of Bihar Assembly elections, an NGO has moved the Supreme Court seeking urgent hearing of its 2017 PIL challenging the 2018 Electoral Bonds Scheme meant for funding political parties.
The NGO, 'Association for Democratic Reforms', had earlier also moved a similar plea seeking stay on the scheme ahead of Delhi Assembly polls in January this year. The apex court had refused to grant the interim stay on the scheme.
The top court, however, had sought response of the Centre and the Election Commission within two weeks on the interim application filed by the NGO on January 20 and since then the PIL has not been listed for hearing.
The three-phase elections in Bihar will be held from October 28 to November 7 amid the COVID-19 pandemic; the counting of votes will be on November, 10.
Right before the Bihar legislative assembly elections, the State Bank of India, in the XIV Phase of sale, has been authorized to issue and encash Electoral Bonds through its 29 Authorized branches with effect from October 19 to
October 28, 2020, said the fresh plea, filed through lawyer Prashant Bhushan.
Seeking urgent hearing, it said even though a notification of January 2, 2018, stipulated the sale of electoral bonds in months of January, April, July and October months of each year and the window was not opened in April and July, but has been opened in October, (this year) right before the Bihar legislative election.
It said in view of passing of more than 9 months since the last date of hearing of the PIL and new developments relating to Bihar legislative election having taken place, the instant plea required an urgent hearing.
As the reason for urgency, the NGO said that it had filed the PIL on September 4, 2017 on the issue of corruption and subversion of democracy through illicit and foreign funding of political parties and lack of transparency in the accounts of all political parties.
Certain amendments made through Finance Act, 2017 and earlier Finance Act, 2016, both passed as money bills, and which have opened doors to unlimited political donations, even from foreign companies and thereby legitimizing electoral corruption at a huge scale, while at the same time ensuring complete non-transparency in political funding, it said.