Electoral Bonds Case Hearing : Live Updates From Supreme Court [Day 3]

SG: Nobody has so far heard that bunglows are being built for leaders. They are building offices and other Electoral expenses.

The bench suggests Sr Adv Kapil Sibal to attend the proceedings virtually from the conference room as the senior Advocate seems to be feeling unwell.

SG: This is not for elections. When we think of elections we think of general parliamentary elections. When a political party is running, it contests parliamentary elections, assembly elections, local authority elections. It has campaigns, rallies, think tanks, salaries, offices

SG: And your lordships concern about someone being an aggregator - If I have to donate 50 cr, I'd have to find 50 aggregators. What would be easier would be to give in cash.

CJI: No, no. The party doesn't get money in white. The party wants capital.

SG: Party doesn't need money in white.

CJI: This is not a scheme only for elections.

SG: Correct, it's for running the party. I'm not feeling shy saying that.

SG: There cannot be anonymous donation. I'll have to give my KYC, Aadhar number, address etc. Not anyone can just go buy the bonds.

SG: Only political parties registered under RPA and 1% votes is eligible. Why this 1%? Earlier, there was some mushrooming of parties just for exemptions. To ensure that there is no fake party, we did this.

SG: What they can do is- they can go to a small cooperative bank in some corner of the country, deposit it, withdraw in cash and noone will know. To avoid this, we have said every party will have one designated account.

SG: Everywhere the bond cannot be purchased and everywhere it cannot be deposited. Why this? The donor and donee both must have a designated account and a designated branch. Why? I purchase a bond of Rs 1 cr and give it to a party. They don't want to show it in their return.

SG: The largest public sector bank of the country is before the highest court of the country and the Chairman has signed that this cannot be shared even with the Central Government.

The SG takes the bench through the scheme.

SG: The idea was instead of shell companies and cash- let clean money come into the system. And whether we like it or not, commercial sector has immensely helped in development of nation.