The Supreme Court’s February 15 verdict on electoral bonds (EBs) had held the deletion of a provision contained in Section 182 (1) of the Companies Act, 2013, which enabled unlimited corporate contributions to political parties as “violative of Article 14 of the Indian constitution”.
The provision had restricted corporate donations to a cap of 7.5% of the donor companies’ average net profits in the three preceding financial years. The Finance Act, 2017, had deleted the provision.
Based on an analysis, the electoral bond data relating to 385 companies that had donated bonds totalling ₹5,362.2 crore to the ruling BJP, the highest recipient of electoral bond donations, 55 firms were found to have made donations that exceeded the original 7.5% cap in 2022-23 and 2023-24.
