Key Points
Last week, in Association for Democratic Reforms vs Union of India, a five-judge bench of the Supreme Court unanimously struck down the governments electoral bonds scheme, finding that the voters right to know trumps a donors right to privacy..
However, while it strikes down funding through the seemingly anonymous electoral bonds route, it does not ban corporations from funding political parties altogether..
The government argued that donors have a right to privacy which extends to their political affiliations, including political donations, and the scheme helped curb black money in politics as donors could make donations freely, without the fear of retaliation by a donees political opponents..
Further, the government argued that the scheme was intended to curb black money and corruption, objectives that had earlier led the court to uphold the Prevention of Money Laundering Act and demonetization..
However, the argument that political funding is also a form of speech and expression was not made before the court, possibly because corporate donors were not represented in these proceedings..
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