Supreme Court to consider if Electoral Bonds case should be referred to Constitution Bench

New Delhi: The Supreme Court on Tuesday posted for April 11 to hear submissions on whether to refer to the Constitution bench a batch of pleas challenging the government's Electoral Bond scheme which allows for anonymous funding to political parties.

A bench of Chief Justice DY Chandrachud and Justice PS Narasimha said it will consider on April 11 if the Electoral Bonds case should be referred to a five-judge Constitution bench.

The apex court passed the direction after the petitioner's counsel said the matter is of Constitutional importance and could impact democratic polity in the country and funding of political parties.

"This case should be heard by a constitution bench since this deserves an authoritative pronouncement by the court," said advocate Shadan Farasat appearing for one of the petitioners.

To this, the bench said, "Then we will hear it on April 11, 2023, to see if it should be referred to the Constitution bench."

During the hearing senior advocate, Dushyant Dave told the bench that the matter has been pending for long and asked are we going to wait for the Karnataka elections now so that another tranche of Electoral Bonds is given.

Earlier, advocate Prashant Bhushan, representing NGOs Association for Democratic Reforms and Common Cause - petitioners in the case, had told the apex court that the matter should be referred to a five-judge Constitution bench.

An application was filed earlier relating to the Centre amending the Electoral Bond scheme to allow their sale for 15 extra days during the "year of general elections to the legislative assembly of States and Union territories with the legislature".

The new application was filed by Congress leader Jaya Thakur in the main matter, which has been pending since 2017. (with ANI inputs)

• #Supreme Court
• #electoral bonds
• #Constitution bench
• #DY Chandrachud
• #PS Narasimha
• #Dushyant Dave
• #Shadan Farasat