scorecardresearch
Add as a preferred source on Google
Saturday, January 3, 2026
TopicElectoral bonds

Topic: electoral bonds

An electoral bond is a financial instrument for making donations to political parties. According to the Electoral Bond Scheme, 2018, it is a bond issued in the nature of a promissory note, which shall be bearer in character. A bearer instrument is one which does not carry the name of the buyer or payee, no ownership information is recorded and the holder of the instrument (i.e. political party) is presumed to be its owner.

The scheme allows individuals, who are citizens of India, and domestic companies to donate these bonds — issued in multiples of Rs 1,000, Rs 10,000, Rs 1 lakh, Rs 10 lakh, and Rs 1 crore — to political parties of their choice. The Supreme Court of India on February 15, 2024, struck down the electoral bonds scheme for anonymous funding to political parties as “unconstitutional”.

SC ruling on bonds good but transparency problem in election expenditure still untouched

+TFP Gopalaswami N -
EBS is now gone, but ETS is still available, ECI should nudge political parties and the corporate world towards wider use of ETS. Then, at least one part of electoral funding can become cleaner.

‘Opportunity to ensure accountability’ — Urdu press hails SC’s move to strike down electoral bonds

Heena Fatima -
ThePrint’s round-up of how the Urdu media covered various news events through the week, and the editorial positions some of them took.

Electoral bonds can now redeem themselves and Supreme Court. Anonymity cloak set to come off

Apoorva Mandhani -
Electoral bonds are now set to bring transparency in political funding, but not in the way Arun Jaitley had claimed. The real deal will be when SBI reveals details of who donated how much to which political party.

Fewer ‘political consequences’, can help curb black money — why SC prefers electoral trusts to bonds

Akshat Jain -
While striking down electoral bond scheme, Supreme Court suggested using electoral trusts introduced by Congress-led UPA, calling it an 'effective alternative' for political donations.

SC ruling on electoral bonds is a vaccine for the future not medicine for the present

Rangin Pallav Tripathy -
The clear timeline set by the Supreme Court suggests that it is conscious about making information available to people before 2024 elections. But do voters have enough time to untangle the web of quid pro quo?

‘Unlimited corporate contributions to parties contrary to free & fair elections,’ says SC

Apoorva Mandhani -
Striking down electoral bonds scheme, SC said ‘chief reason for corporate funding of political parties is to influence political process which may in turn improve company’s performance’.

‘Throwing baby out with bathwater’ — BJP reacts to SC declaring electoral bonds unconstitutional

Neelam Pandey -
BJP’s Baijayant Panda says ‘electoral bonds were infinitely better than suitcases of illicit cash’ while Ravi Shankar Prasad asserts scheme was meant to reform election funding.

10 important observations SC made while striking down electoral bonds scheme as unconstitutional

Apoorva Mandhani -
Supreme Court in its electoral bonds judgment observed that political 'contributions enhance access to legislators which translates into influence over policymaking'.

Kharge welcomes scrapping of electoral bonds — ‘hope govt will stop resorting to mischievous ideas’

PTI -
After the Supreme Court annulled electoral bonds scheme Thursday, calling it 'unconstitutional', Congress chief Mallikarjun Kharge says it was 'black money conversion scheme of Modi govt'.

SC took apart Modi govt’s anonymous electoral bonds, shows why it’s still India’s most valuable institution

ThePrint Team -
ThePrint view on the most important issues.
1...456Page 5 of 6

On Camera

YourTurn

Opinion

India’s most consequential decade & chronicling it as part of the dream team of journalism

Shekhar Gupta -
You’d think the decade of 1985-95 is long over. Not really. The issues that erupted in that decade are still shaping Indian conversations.

How Gen-Z is changing the violent extremist landscape online

Dalit dating in India is a choice between dignity and loneliness

Economy

India’s urban co-op banks are turning the page—crisis to cautious revival, one metric at a time

+TFP Udit Bubna -
With bad loans shrinking & capital buffers stronger, urban co-op banks’ new umbrella body NUCFDC is now prioritising rollout of digital transformation.

Defence

Greece looking at TATA’s WhAP infantry combat vehicle for army procurement

Snehesh Alex Philip -
If deal goes through, Greece will be 2nd foreign country to procure vehicle. Morocco was first; TATA Group has set up manufacturing unit there with minimum 30 percent indigenous content.

National Interest

A year-end Mea Culpa in National Interest—The Army-Islam combo doesn’t kill democracy

Shekhar Gupta -
Many of you might think I got something so wrong in National Interest pieces written this year. I might disagree! But some deserve a Mea Culpa. I’d deal with the most recent this week.

Follow us

Copyright © 2025 Printline Media Pvt. Ltd. All rights reserved.