Published Paper Details:

The central government had on January 29,2018, notified the electoral bond scheme. Electoral bond is like a promissory note that can be bought by any Indian Citizen or company incorporated in India from select branches of State Bank of India. The buyer can then donate the same to any eligible political party of his/her choice. Monies received from electoral bonds will be deposited in a bank account verified by the Election Commission. All the transactions for electoral bonds can be done only through that account. Analyists point out that electoral bonds are most likely the first of its kind instrument in the world used for funding political parties. While the United States has Political Action Committees which receive money from individual and corporate donors and manage them, they do not have any scheme that allows citizens to directly purchase a bond and donate the same to a political party. The introduction of the electoral bond scheme is part of what appears to be a growing trend away from transparency and accountability, two values which were already sparse in relation to Indian political parties as per Vidhi Centre for Legal Policy report, published in March 2018. Opponents to the scheme allege that since the identity of donor of electoral bonds has been kept anonymous, it could lead to an infux of black money. Others allege that the scheme was designed to help big corporate houses donate money without their identity being revealed. The honourable Supreme Court in it's order said that while it wanted to hear the matter at legth at a later stage, for the interim it wanted a situation where the balance was not tilted in anyone's favour.