Amendment of section 29C of Act 43 of 1951
137. In the Representation of the People Act, 1951, in section 29C, in sub-section (1), the following shall be inserted, namely:—
'Provided that nothing contained in this sub-section shall apply to the contributions received by way of an electoral bond.
Explanation:—For the purposes of this sub-section, \"electoral bond\" means a bond referred to in the Explanation to sub-section (3) of section 31 of the Reserve Bank of India Act, 1934.
","words":79,"text_source":"published"},"classification":[],"instruments":[],"judgments":[{"cnr":"SCIN010023442018","order":"order-13.pdf","title":"Association For Democratic Reforms vs Union Of India","court":"SC","court_name":"Supreme Court of India","date":"2024-02-15","citation":"2024 INSC 113","precedential_value":"Binding (Supreme Court Constitution Bench)","court_marking":"reportable","ratio_decidendi":"The Electoral Bond Scheme violates Article 19(1)(a) by preventing disclosure of electoral contributions essential to informed voting. Voters have fundamental right to information about political funding as political parties are focal units in electoral system affecting policy outcomes. The purposes cited (curbing black money and protecting donor privacy) do not justify this extensive non-disclosure. Alternative measures like Electoral Trusts, direct banking channels with disclosure at Rs. 20,000+ threshold, and sector-specific audit requirements satisfy the objectives with lesser impact on fundamental rights. Removal of contribution caps in Section 182 of Companies Act is manifestly arbitrary as it fails to distinguish between profit-making and loss-making companies and treats corporations like individuals despite different capacities to influence politics. The right to know trumps donor privacy in balancing analysis as political contributions are public acts affecting public policy and representative democracy.","applied_to_this_section":"Exempted contributions through electoral bonds from disclosure. Held unconstitutional as it violated right to information of voters.","basis":"cited","decided_under":null,"url":"https://ecourtsindia.com/cnr/SCIN010023442018/order-13"}],"corresponds_to":[],"url":"https://indiacode.ecourtsindia.com/finance-act-2017/section/137/","note":null,"source_note":"Harvested from the Income Tax Department's own portal at incometaxindia.gov.in, which publishes the Finance Acts section by section. India Code carries none of them: its Central community holds the Acts that stand as general law, and a Finance Act is an amending and rate-fixing instrument.","judgments_note":"Judgment holdings are the ratio decidendi as extracted from the order by eCourts India, reproduced unaltered. Reported judgments only.","licence":"Published with commentary and other original matter under s.52(1)(q)(ii), Copyright Act 1957."}