In February this year, a Supreme Court bench of Chief Justice of India Dhananjay Yashwant Chandrachud and Justice Pamidighantam Sree Narasimha had directed the Electoral Bonds case to be listed in the third week of March.
The scheme, notified on January 2, 2018, allows individuals (who are citizens of India) and domestic companies to donate these bonds – issued in multiples of Rs 1,000, Rs 10,000, Rs 1 lakh, Rs 10 lakh and Rs 1 Crore – to political parties of their choice which they have to encash within 15 days.
A person can buy bonds alone or jointly with other persons. There is no limit on the number of Electoral Bonds that can be purchased by an individual or corporate entity.
The number of bonds not encashed within the validity period of 15 days shall be deposited by the designated bank in the Prime Minister’s National Relief Fund (PMNRF).
So far, 160 bonds with a total amount of Rs 23.68 crore (0.21 per cent) were submitted to PMNRF. Thus, 99.79 per cent of the bonds purchased during the 23 phases were encashed by the political parties within the validity period.
At least 13,026 electoral bonds worth Rs 7,409.23 crore redeemed between March 2018 and November 2022, or 64.74 per cent of the total electoral bonds, were redeemed in New Delhi (while the maximum value of bonds were bought in Mumbai) where national parties are headquartered situated at .
Source: Association for Democratic Reforms
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