SC verdict on electoral bonds: Still a long way to go, says former CEC
Supreme Court verdict striking down the electoral bonds scheme is a «great boon for democracy», former chief election commissioner S Y Quraishi said on Thursday. N Gopalaswami, who was the chief election commissioner from June 2006 to April 2009, said, «We are still very long way off in cleaning up the electoral funding system.»
A five-judge bench of the apex court headed by Chief Justice of India D Y Chandrachud said the electoral bonds scheme violates the right to information and the freedom of speech and expression under the Constitution.
The top court directed that the SBI must disclose details of each electoral bond encashed by the political parties. The information should include the date of encashment and the denomination of the bonds and be submitted to the poll panel by March 6.
The Election Commission should publish the information shared by SBI on its official website by March 13, the bench said.
«One system goes, another system comes. It will be back to cash which was more prevalent earlier,» Gopalaswami told PTI.
He said, «We are still very long way off in cleaning up the electoral funding system».
Quraishi, who headed the poll authority between June 2010 and June 2012, said the SC verdict will «restore people's faith in democracy».
«This is the greatest thing that could have happened. This is the most historic judgment that we have got from the Supreme Court in the last five-seven years. It is a great boon for democracy,» Quraishi told PTI Videos.
«We were all concerned for the last so many
