Electoral Bonds: Election Commission opposes Centre, tells SC it would impact transparency

Opposing the stance of the Central government, the Election Commission of India (EC) has told the Supreme Court that the scheme of electoral bonds would affect transparency in political funding..In its affidavit filed before the Supreme Court, the Election Commission has stated that it had communicated its concerns regarding the impact of certain provisions of the Finance Act, 2017 and the corresponding amendments to the Income Tax Act and the Representation of People Act (RP Act) to the Ministry of Law and Justice. It had written to the Law Ministry that the scheme of electoral bonds would have “serious repercussions/impact on the transparency aspect of political finance/funding of political parties.”.The EC has maintained that it is in no position to comment as regards the amendment carried out to the Reserve Bank of India Act. However, with respect to the amendment to the RP Act, the body had informed the Law Ministry that the amendment will make political donations opaque..By adding a proviso to Section 29C of the RP Act which deals with the declaration of donations made to the political parties, the transparency of the process will be seriously affected as the source of the donation cannot be ascertained. In this context, the EC submits that it had communicated the following to the Law Ministry:.“In a situation where contributions received through electoral Bonds are not reported, on perusal of the Contribution Reports of the political parties, it cannot be ascertained whether the political party has taken any donation in violation of provisions under Section 29-B of the Representation of People Act, 1951, which prohibits the political parties from taking donations from Government Companies and Foreign Sources.”.The EC also told the Law Ministry that many political parties presented a large portion of the donations received by them as less than Rs. 20,000 considering that in such a scenario a record of details of the donor need not be maintained. It had, therefore, proposed an amendment to the Representation of People Act to reduce the limit of anonymous/ cash donations to Rs. 2,000..The amendment made to the Foreign Contribution Regulation Act, 2010 allows parties to receive funding from foreign companies that own a majority stake in an Indian company. This is a shift from the existing law which barred receipt of donations from foreign sources. This shift, the EC says, would “allow unchecked foreign funding of political parties” and could lead to Indian policies being heavily influenced by foreign companies..The EC has prayed that its position to be recorded by the Court and has stressed that the body has time and again proposed various measures in order to ensure that the election process as well as the political funding, is made transparent and the political parties are made accountable to the public..The petition filed by the Association of Democratic Reforms which challenges the validity of the scheme of Electoral Bonds is scheduled to be taken up by the Supreme Court on April 2. The Central government had earlier told the Supreme Court that electoral bonds will promote transparency and accountability in funding and donations received by political parties in India..Read Election Commission’s Affidavit:.Bar & Bench is available on WhatsApp. For real-time updates on stories, Click here to subscribe to our WhatsApp.