 So, welcome back to the online platform of Chanakya Aceh Academy, myself, Harsh Vardhan and we are again back with a very hot topic of current affairs that is electoral bond and it is also very much important from UPSC point of view because various questions have been asked from right to information in UPSC and accordingly it is very important for other state PCs exam also. So, today in this session we will be dealing with what is electoral bond, how this concept evolved in the constitution and what are the concerns, issues which have been recently arising and for that reason Supreme Court has struck down electoral bond recently. Supreme Court has declared the electoral bond as unconstitutional. So, in this session we will be dealing with what are the concerns, what is electoral bond and what are recent issues which has been evolved for which Supreme Court has taken this decision and we will be dealing with a concrete examples and the current judgment of Supreme Court. So, let us start the session. So, what is electoral bond? We will know what is electoral bond in this session first. So, this electoral bond was not earlier inherited in our constitution. It has been recently it was included in 2017. The concept electoral bond system was introduced in 2017 by the way of finance bill and it was implemented in the year 2018. Those 17 days through the finance bill, electoral bond was brought as a concept in the constitution and it was implemented in the year 2018. After that, they serve as a means for individuals and entities to make donations to registered political parties while maintaining donor anonymity. This means that the government's desire to bring electoral bond was that the parties in our country who fight for elections, they know that they need a lot of funds and they spend a lot. So, before that, the parties who used to take money, they didn't have any account and they didn't show the party. They had a record because people could know how much money came from. So, to clarify this concept under the right to information, the government of India decided that the electoral bond concept that registered political parties are in India, for example, BJP or Congress, which is a different concept of registered political parties that you have to come to the quota, then you will be registered in the national party or various party clubs. So, the political party was brought as a chart to keep the electoral bond concept so that the right to information act was truly arranged and we implemented it and suggested it. I hope you understand this concept. Now, we know more about the electoral bond. Who takes the electoral bond or which bank has the right to issue it and accordingly how many people can donate to it and what criteria it has. So, first of all, the electoral bond issue is the state bank of India and the denomination of the bond is Rs. 1,000, Rs. 10,000, Rs. 1 lakh, Rs. 10 lakh and Rs. 1 crore so that you can buy the bond and donate any party according to you. The name of the person who will donate to the party will be anonymous and the name of the person who will donate to the party will be hidden and no one will know which party has donated to the party. Who will have that record? The state bank. So, who is the guardian of the electoral bond that can buy the state bank of India, whose bond can be bought and any party can fund accordingly. Second, it is payable to the bearer of the bond demand and interest free. The electoral bond is interest free and the party or the institution who wants to donate to any party can donate accordingly through the bond. Third point is it is purchased by Indian citizens or entities established in India. This means that the bond can be bought by Indian citizens or entities established in India and can donate to any party accordingly. Third, it can be bought individually or jointly with other individuals. Either a person can donate to an individual party or a group or a group of institutions can directly fund the party which you want to donate or support. So, I hope you understand what is the concept of the electoral bond and how it is donated. Next, we will move on to the electoral bond concept. The electoral bond is valid for 15 calendar days from the date of issue. This means that the calendar days which is bought by the bond paper, within 15 days the political party which is given the issue to a person or a party, the party has to redeem the bond within 15 days. The amount of money that the bond has been donated has to be captured. Otherwise, after 15 days the bond money will be invalidated. I hope you understand what is the concept of this. The Supreme Court now knows how issues have started and what are the repercussions that the Supreme Court has announced in the constitution. Supreme Court on Thursday on 15th February delivered its highly anticipated judgment in the electoral bond case holding that anonymous electoral bond are violative of the right to information under article 19a of the constitution. Accordingly, the scheme has been struck down and mentioned as unconstitutional. This means that the Supreme Court has passed a judgment on 15th February in which the electoral bond case was filed, in which various lawyers have filed a case against the Supreme Court. The case of the electoral bond is harming the right to information. The right to information is the right to speech and expression article 19a of the constitution. You get the right to think. So, in the constitution, the right mentioned earlier how was the electoral bond being violated? Suppose the electoral bond was bought by a party and donated money. The name of the party will be kept anonymous. But by making a record of it, you have to give the election commission of India monthly. Do you have a total bond? Which party got more money or who got more support? Which party is influencing the government? All of this should be in the public's knowledge. This was the trial of the lawyers. The Supreme Court passed the judgment that the electoral bond is unconstitutional because it is harming the right to information. How is it harming? I have already discussed that the people who are giving money to the government are not able to influence a person or a party and influence the policies of the government and make it their favorite. The Supreme Court of India decided that this bond should be retaken and unconstitutional. I hope you have understood what are the consequences that have been repealed. Let's move ahead. Let's find out the major concerns that have been discussed. Let's find out the concerns of the government and the Supreme Court of India. What were the concerns of the Supreme Court of India and how this judgment was made? The first concern is that the concept of the electoral bond is contradicting its basic idea. How is it contradicting that what idea did you bring this bond through? You brought this bond because you wanted to empower the right to information and that information reached which party is getting more donations and who is giving more donations. You were not making the name of the bond. In 2017, this concept was not of the electoral bond. But when this concept was brought then why this concept was not empowered more? The right to information is contradicting because it was brought under the right to information. So the name of the person and the donation which was given to which party was getting more donations should have been named. But it was not. That is why the concept of the electoral bond was contradicting itself. The idea of the electoral bond was not of the right to information. The second is the possibility of extortion. You know that during the election many parties collect funds and this can definitely be a ground for extortion. Because the fund is needed to get the election and it can also be taken as an extortion. And later on this can be manipulated to make the government a politician. And extortion can be taken from any institution to face this case. So I hope you have understood point 2. Point 3 is blow to democracy. And to the people. So in the knowledge of the people this point should be given to the party who is getting so much funds and who is getting so much funds by giving importance to the person who is favoring the government. That is why the concept of the electoral bond is blow to democracy. Hope you have understood point 3. Point 4 is favoritism towards rich corporates. This means that the rich companies and the companies who have funded the party will definitely have a good fund and a soft corner government policy. So you must have understood how this point is contradicting. Fifth point is compromising right to know. You have the right to know what is happening with the government and what is happening in the party. This is right to know. Fifth point is against free and fair elections. Definitely if a party is getting so much funds from a person then the money can be used to do wrong things. Like purchasing votes or a particular vote bank to capture the government in the wrong way. This means that it is against free and fair elections. Fifth point is crony capitalism. This means that the capitalist mindset of favoring a company or firm and making a policy under the capitalist ideology and becoming lipped in the same policy and the corporate sector and corporate world will have more funds and the desire of the company will make a particular policy in the party power. So this is why crony capitalism matters. So I hope you understand this concern and the Supreme Court understood the logic of this point and declared the electoral bond unconstitutional. Now let's know what are the key points of the verdict. The electoral bond scheme has been struck down as unconstitutional. In its verdict the Supreme Court said the scheme violated the right to information of citizens impacting free speech and expression under Article 19a of the Constitution. Transparency in political funding cannot be achieved by granting absolute exemption from the Supreme Court. I have already discussed how the Supreme Court decided that the electoral bond should be unconstitutional. So the Supreme Court understood that the right to information or right to know is hampering the electoral bond and the Supreme Court is not allowing the party to have more funds. The second point was the right to speech and expression under Article 19a. The next point was the transparency in political funding cannot be achieved by granting absolute exemption from the Supreme Court. Now let's understand how the Supreme Court reached the verdict. Next is the top court order the issuing bank. I have already mentioned the issuing bank. The top court ordered the issuing bank to stop the issue of electoral bond. The state bank of India has been asked to furnish the details of donations through electoral bonds and the details of the political party which received the contributions of the election commission by March 6, 2024. Recently a hot topic was on the news that the Supreme Court immediately said that you should follow it and stop it. Until now, the amount of data you have under the electoral bond you have to publish it until March 6 to find out which party had given the funds and put it on the website of the election commission of India. Although the state bank of India was late and they filed a petition in the Supreme Court to vacate the state bank and issue it immediately. Now you can know the data of the institution and the corporate sector. So let's understand this point. The electoral bond that had not been encased by political parties had to be returned to the purchasers. This means that the Supreme Court had not redeemed the bond which was bought by the purchasers. The Supreme Court also quest amendments made to the Income Tax Act and the Representation of People's Act which made donations anonymous. The Supreme Court of India quested two more acts which told that the purchase of the electoral bond should be anonymous. The Income Tax Act and the Representation of People's Act which was mentioned that anonymous can be donated. In a major observation the Supreme Court said that electoral scheme would aid the political party that was in power and it also held that the scheme cannot be justified by claiming that it would help arrest the inflow of black money in politics. In a major observation the Supreme Court has said that the electoral scheme would aid the political party that was in power. The electoral scheme which was bought by a person is directly funded by the political party in power because they are in power and any firm wants to favor the party. They can manipulate the money by using their power in a wrong way. This is the concern of the Supreme Court. The concept of black money will be more successful because they don't know who is the person who is donating the party. This is a way to manipulate the black money in a wrong way. Let's move ahead. The judgment also said that the amendment to the Companies Act allowing blanket corporate political funding was unconstitutional. It was unconstitutional through the Companies Act. I hope you remember this topic. Let's move ahead in the same way. We need to know the verdict of the Supreme Court because they have specified in different ways why this bond was unconstitutional. The CGI said it violated the right to information before the amendment to the Companies Act in 2017 loss making firms in India were not allowed to contribute. The CGI of Supreme Court of India said that the Qid Pro Q system was possibly affecting it and the loss making company was not given by the electoral bond. It was manipulating the system and using the party power in a wrong way. I hope you understand this topic. Let's move ahead. The last concept of the verdict was introduced in 2017. Electoral bonds allowed individuals and corporate groups to donate amount of money to any political party anonymously. Under the electoral bond scheme, it was purchased by donors in fixed denomination from SBI and handed over to any political party that could cast them. I have already told you that any group of person or individual can donate any party that wants to favor them. This is the same system that was introduced through the finance bill. It was introduced in 2017-18. Supreme Court of India passed this constitutional code because it was against the right to information. I hope you understand the concept. The Indian voter needs to know the sources of financial contribution to political parties and the general election. It means that any person who is going to vote needs to know which party has received the most funds and who is doing it because it is against the right to information. Let's move ahead. First of all, prominent buyers still magnet Lakshmi Mittal bought the bond of 35 crore. Then Vedanta Limited purchased the bonds of 398 crore. Then comes Bharati Airtales 3 firms made substantial contribution with bond purchase of 246 crore. This is all data that was published on the website of Election Commission of India. Future gaming and hotel services emerged as a significant buyer with bonds worth of 1,350 crore. The future gaming company has made the most contribution. The total donors were a total of 213 donors and a total of 12 bonds worth of 10 crore. This data was published on the website of Election Commission of India which was given by SBI as per the judgment of Supreme Court of India. Let's move ahead. Additional corporate buyers purchased SpiceJet, Indigo, Grasim Industries and other industries. Directly purchased the bond and funded the party. Let's move ahead. The name of the corporate buyers is Soda, Super Specialty, Hospital based in Ghaziabad. They bought a bond worth of 1 crore. State Bank of India disclosed that total of 227 electoral bonds were bought between April 1, 2019 and February 15, 2024 with most being redeemed by the political party. SBI has told that about 22,217 people bought the bond and the entire bond was redeemed. That means the party has been converted to cash. So this is the concept we saw. Hope you liked this session. I am not feeling well today. I hope that the main material of this concept was the crux of the electoral bond. I will come back with more topics which are very important from the UPSC point of view. Good luck to you all. Best wishes. Keep working hard.