Electoral Bonds Judgment: LIVE updates from Supreme Court

The Supreme Court is pronouncing its verdict today on a batch of petitions that have challenged the legal validity of the electoral bonds scheme that allows anonymous donations to political parties.

A five-judge Constitution bench of Chief Justice of India (CJI) DY Chandrachud and Justices Sanjiv Khanna, BR Gavai, JB Pardiwala and Manoj Misra is delivering the verdict.

The electoral bonds scheme allows donors to anonymously send funds to a political party after buying bearer bonds from the State Bank of India (SBI).

Electoral bonds were introduced through the Finance Act, 2017, which in turn amended three other statutes - the RBI Act, the Income Tax Act and the Representation of People Act - to enable the introduction of such bonds.

The 2017 Finance Act introduced a system by which electoral bonds could be issued by any scheduled bank for the purpose of electoral funding.

The Finance Act was passed as a money bill, which meant that it did not require the assent of the Rajya Sabha.

Various petitions were filed before the top court challenging at least five amendments made to different statutes through the Finance Act, 2017 on the ground that they have opened doors to unlimited, unchecked funding of political parties.

The petitions also raised the ground that the Finance Act could not have been passed as a money bill.

The Central government in its counter-affidavit maintained that the electoral bonds scheme is transparent.

Live updates from the pronouncement of judgment here.