ROHIT, JADEJA hold fort as England toil Hundreds by India captain and all-rounder rescue India after they were reduced to 33/3 in the first innings of the third Test on Thursday Senior pros step up After losing three early wickets for 33 runs, Rohit Sharma scored 131 and Ravindra Jadeja was batting on 110 to take India to 326/5 at stumps Dream debut for Sarfaraz TIRUCHY l friday l february 16, 2024 l `9.00 l PAGES 12 l LATE city EDITION After piling runs in Ranji Trophy, an emotional Sarfaraz Khan finally got his India cap on Thursday in front of his dad and wife. He made 62 | P11 Rohit Sharma and Ravindra Jadeja CHENNAI ■ MADURAI ■ VIJAYAWADA ■ BENGALURU ■ KOCHI ■ HYDERABAD ■ VISAKHAPATNAM ■ COIMBATORE ■ KOZHIKODE ■ THIRUVANANTHAPURAM ■ BELAGAVI ■ BHUBANESWAR ■ SHIVAMOgGA ■ MANGALURU ■ TIRUPATI ■ TIRUCHY ■ TIRUNELVELI ■ SAMBALPUR ■ HUBBALLI ■ DHARMAPURI ■ KOTTAYAM ■ KANNUR ■ VILLUPURAM ■ KOLLAM ■ TADEPALLIGUDEM ■ NAGAPATTINAM ■ THRISSUR ■ KALABURAGI F a r m e r s ’ p r ot e s t BJP had made electoral bonds a medium for bribe and commission. Today a stamp has been put on this SC has delivered a verdict, we respect it. Electoral bonds had laudable objective of bringing transparency It is the most historic judgement that we have got from the SC in 5-7 years. It is a great boon for democracy It is a historic judgment, it’s in the interest of a clean democracy. I hope that political parties will learn their lessons Welcome this unanimous judgment scrapping the electoral bonds that legalise political corruption Rahul Gandhi, Congress Ravi Shankar Prasad, BJP S Y Quraishi, former CEC T S Krishnamurthy, ex-CEC Sitaram Yechury, CPM Orders SBI to give EC data on buyers and recipients Poll panel told to upload info on its site Verdict weeks before LS polls SC nixes electoral bonds S u c h i t r a K a lya n M o h a n t y @ New Delhi In a landmark judgment, a five-member Constitution bench the Supreme Court on Thursday unanimously struck down the electoral bond scheme notified by the BJP government at the Centre in early 2018, as unconstitutional. The verdict is a moral blow for the government ahead of the general elections. The bench headed by Chief Justice of India (CJI) D Y Chandrachud gave the State Bank of India, the issuing bank, time till March 6 to share with the Election Commission of India full data on the purchasers of the electoral bonds and their recipients. It went on to instruct the poll body to upload the SBI’s information on its official website within a week of receipt of the data — by March 13. The court also declared the amendments to the Income Tax Act and Section 29C of the Representation of the People Act to facilitate the electoral bonds, null and void. The CJI also said the amendment to the Companies Act that opened the door for blanket corporate political funding was unconstitutional. “The Union has been unable to establish the measure adopted in clause 7(4)(1) of the electoral scheme is the least restrictive measure (on fundamental rights),” the verdict authored by the CJI for himself as also for justices B R Gavai, J B Pardiwala and Manoj Misra, said. Justice Sanjay Khanna wrote a separate verdict. He had a different reasoning but arrived at the same conclusion. “The scheme is not fool-proof. There are sufficient gaps in the scheme which enable political parties to know the particulars of the Bearer instrument An electoral bond has the nature of a promissory note, which is bearer in character. A bearer instrument does not carry the name of the buyer or payee SA m p Videograb of the five-judge bench headed by Chief Justice of India D Y Chandrachud and comprising justices Sanjiv Khanna, B R Gavai, J B Pardiwala and Manoj Mishra | PTI Denomination up to `1 crore The scheme allows Indian citizens and domestic companies to donate these bonds issued in multiples of `1,000, `10,000, `1 lakh, `10 lakh and `1 crore to parties of their choice. These bonds have to be redeemed within 15 days No cap on buying le No limit on the number of electoral bonds that an individual or corporate entity can purchase. Scheme does not require parties to mention the names and addresses of the contributors in their annual reports to the Election Commission contributions made to them,” Justice Chandrachud said. Information about funding of political parties, he added, is essential for the effective exercise of the choice of voting. Data shows that 94% of the donations were in the denomination of `1 crore. In other words, electoral bonds provide economically powerful contributors access to lawmakers and the ability to influence policy decisions while giving them selective anonymity vis-a-vis the public. The court said information about political funding would enable voters to assess if there is any correlation between policy making and financial contributions. In an affidavit filed in the SC on March 27, 2019, the EC had informed that it had written to the Centre ques- tioning the changes in several laws relating to political funding, saying it will have serious repercussions on transparency It had also warned the . government that changes in the Foreign Contribution (Regulation) Act, 2010 could allow unchecked foreign funding of political parties. “In a situation where electoral bonds were not reported, it cannot be ascertained whether the political party has taken any donation from government companies and foreign sources.” Justice Sanjiv Khanna, in his separate verdict, said retribution, victimisation or retaliation against any donor to a political party is an abuse of law and power. It needs to be corrected but cannot be seen as justification to make the scheme anonymous. “Transparency and not secrecy is the cure and antidote,” he said. Modi invites CM lists DMK’s feats, says 9% of Qatari Emir nat’l economy comes from TN to visit India E X P RE S S NE W S S ER V ICE @ Chennai Y e s h i s e l i @ New Delhi Chief Minister M K Stalin at the TN Assembly on Thursday | PTI CM: Guv’s conduct political activity Chennai: The CM said the governor’s conduct appeared to be an extension of his political activities. “We have been facing fascism and autocracy at the national level and will not be cowed down by childish acts (of the governor),” he said | P4 express read Prime Minister Narendra Modi on Thursday thanked the Emir of Qatar, Tamim bin Hamad Al Thani, for the recent release of eight naval veterans who were under custody in Doha since 2022. The PM invited the Emir to visit India, Foreign Secretary Vinay Mohan Kwatra said. The two leaders held detailed discussions, first in a delegation level format and then in a restricted format. The topics of discussion included bilateral cooperation, trade partnership, investment cooperation, energy partnership, regional security, cultural affinity, and people-topeople ties. “My visit to Qatar has added new vigour to the India-Qatar friendship. India looks forward to scale up cooperation in key sectors relating to trade, investment, technology and culture. I thank the government and people of Qatar for their hospitality ,’’ Modi said. Modi also thanked the Emir for his support for the welfare of the Indian community in the Gulf nation. Chief Minister MK Stalin on Thursday listed out 10 key achievements of his government, hours after AIADMK leader Edappadi K Palaniswami questioned the DMK government on its performance in the past 33 months. “Tamil Nadu contributes 9% to the country’s total economy . This is our foremost achievement,” the CM told the Tamil Nadu Assembly. “All this has been achieved despite facing severe financial crunch, challenges posed by natural calamities, and stepmotherly treatment meted out to the state by the union government,” Stalin said. Replying to the discussion on the motion moved in the State Assembly to express the House’s agony over the governor’s decision to read out only the first page of his customary address, the CM said, “Once upon a time, we raised the slogan ‘vadakku vaazhakirathu; therkku theikirathu’ (north is thriving; south is waning). But now we have grown to the level of people saying ‘south grows and it also contributes generously to the growth of the north’. This has become possible for Tamil Nadu only because of the Dravidian movement.” coNTINUED ON P5 TN plans 39 one-stop centres to serve disabled persons Chennai: To take welfare schemes to the doorsteps of disabled persons, the state will soon establish 39 one-stop centres (OSCs) at the sub-divisional level under World Bank-funded RIGHTS project. Smaller centres will also be set up at block and neighborhood levels | P2 Day 3 peaceful, third round of talks on H a r p r e e t B a j w a @ Chandigarh THE third round of talks between the Centre and farmer leaders were held in Chandigarh on Thursday night, even as the stand-off between protesters and security personnel continued on the PunjabHaryana border. The meeting between three Union ministers—Arjun Munda, Piyush Goyal, and Nityanand Rai—and farmer leaders started three hours later than scheduled. Sources said the Union ministers were closeted with Punjab Chief Minister Bhagwant Singh Mann at a five-star hotel ahead of their meet with the delegation of 14 farmer leaders, including Jagjit Singh Dallewal, Sarwan Singh Pandher, and Jarnail Singh. The meeting between the Central ministers and farmer union leaders was ongoing at press time. Two previous rounds of talks on February 8 and 12 were not successful. CM Mann and Punjab finance minister Harpal Singh Cheema also joined the negotiation talks at the Mahatma Gandhi State Institute of Public Administration. The situation at Shambhu and Khanauri on the Punjab-Haryana borders remained calm compared with the past two days. Meanwhile, the Bhartiya Kisan Union (BKU) has called a ‘Bharat bandh’ on Friday . 2.5L houses in TN to be repaired at `2k crore Chennai: Chief Minister MK Stalin on Thursday announced that around 2.50 lakh houses built by government under various schemes before 2001 would be repaired and renovated at a cost of `2,000 crore over the next two years. The decision has been taken after representations were received from marginalised people in rural areas, the CM said. Stalin made the announcement in the State Assembly.
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