Kolkata, Feb 15 (PTI) The CPI(M) on Thursday said the Supreme Court judgement annulling the electoral bonds scheme for political funding is an important verdict to protect the Indian parliamentary democracy from the influence of anonymous contributions.
CPI(M) Rajya Sabha MP and senior advocate Bikash Ranjan Bhattacharya said it will also help people to have their independent opinion while polling, being uninfluenced by money power.
“This judgement is one of the important verdicts to protect the Indian parliamentary democracy from the influence of anonymous contributions,” Bhattacharya told PTI.
Bhattacharya said that it would have been more welcome if the apex court directed the refund of all the money received by different political parties to the donors since the introduction of the electoral bonds scheme in 2018.
Asked whether the landmark judgement will have any impact on the coming Lok Sabha elections, he said, “This will be a great blow to those political parties who had to depend a lot on such undisclosed funds.
The Supreme Court on Thursday annulled the electoral bonds scheme for political funding, saying it violates the Constitutional right to freedom of speech and expression as well as the right to information.
In its verdict months ahead of the Lok Sabha polls, the apex court ordered the State Bank of India (SBI) to disclose to the Election Commission the names of the contributors to the six-year-old scheme.
The Election Commission should publish the information shared by SBI on its official website by March 13, the bench said. PTI AMR RG
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