New Delhi : Former Chief Election Commissioner SY Quraishi declared on Thursday that the Supreme Court’s decision to overturn the electoral bonds program is a “great boon for democracy”.
The Chief Justice of India, D Y Chandrachud, led a five-judge panel of the Supreme Court that declared that the electoral bonds scheme is a violation of the Constitution’s guarantees of the right to information and the freedom of speech and expression. It also mandated that the names of those who contributed to the six-year-old political funding scheme be disclosed to the Election Commission by the State Bank of India.
“People’s trust in democracy will be restored by this. The best thing that could have happened is this. In the previous five-seven years, this is the Supreme Court’s most significant ruling. For democracy, it is a huge benefit,” Quraishi told PTI Videos.
“We were all concerned for the last so many years. Everyone who loves democracy was protesting about it. I myself wrote several articles, spoke to the media many times. And every issue that we raised has been tackled in the judgment,” he said.
The former CEC also put out a post on X hailing the Supreme Court for the verdict.
“Electoral Bonds declared unconstitutional by the Supreme Court. Three cheers for the SC!” The scheme, which was notified by the government on January 2, 2018, was pitched as an alternative to cash donations made to political parties as part of efforts to bring transparency in political funding.
Ensuring that the donations are made via the banking system is acceptable, according to Quraishi, but “our contention was why a donation given to a political party should be kept a secret?” “The public wants transparency, but the donor wants secrecy.” So why would the giver desire confidentiality? Because they wish to conceal the terms of their agreement, the advantages they receive in exchange, their license, their contracts, and even the bank loans that enable them to flee to other countries. Is that the reason they desired confidentiality?Additionally, the government made an effort to protect the privacy of the donors—the same donors who have been making donations for the past 70 years. All of a sudden, secrecy was needed. Thus, that is no longer the case. I think it will make our democracy healthy once again,” he said.
This is the best thing that could have happened to India’s democracy, he asserted.
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