Feb 15, 2024
The Supreme Court today, struck down the electoral bonds scheme, which provides blanket anonymity to financial contributions to political parties and amendments made to the law allowing rich corporations to make unlimited political donations “unconstitutional and manifestly arbitrary”. A five-judge Bench headed by Chief Justice of India D. Y. Chandrachud, in a unanimous judgment, held that the electoral bonds scheme and preceding amendments made to the Representation of People Act, Companies Act and the Income Tax Act violate the voters’ right to information about political funding under Article 19(1)(a) of the Constitution.
India on February 15 said it has rejected the demand of the four European nations EFTA bloc for inclusion of a ‘data exclusivity’ provision in proposed free trade agreements, stating that it always protects the interests of the domestic generic drugs industry. Commerce....