The Supreme Court on Thursday issued notices to the Centre and the Election Commission on a PIL challenging the alleged unregulated use of money power by political parties during elections.Noting that the issues raised in the petition involved complex constitutional questions, a bench of Chief Justice of India Surya Kant, Justice Joymalya Bagchi, and Justice Vipul M Pancholi posted the matter for further hearing after six weeks.The order came after advocate Prashant Bhushan submitted on behalf of petitioners Common Cause and the Centre for Public Interest Litigation that “The matter strikes at the heart of the democratic process… This is a fundamental issue affecting democracy.”Referring to spending limits in other jurisdictions, Justice Bagchi questioned the effectiveness of such measures.“There are limits on spending in the US also, but what about the friends of the candidates? If we put an embargo on this much spending…You will come and say that freedom under 19(1)(a) through material support is violated. Then what?” Justice Bagchi asked.Referring to Section 77(1) of the Representation of the People Act, read with Rule 90 of the Conduct of Election Rules, the petitioner pointed out that strict caps on election spending existed for candidates, but no such restrictions existed for political parties.In view of this legal vacuum, the Law Commission has recommended ceilings on political party expenditure, but no corrective legislative or executive action has been taken, the petition stated.Talking about the Supreme Court’s ruling in the Electoral Bonds case, Bhushan contended that the court had already recognised the ill effects of unchecked political funding.“This court in the electoral bonds case agreed that this is skewing our democracy because there is unbridled use of money power by political parties during elections,” he said.Introduced through the Finance Act, 2017, an Electoral Bond is a bearer instrument like a Promissory Note, which can be purchased by an Indian citizen or an Indian company whose identity would remain secret from everybody except the SBI from whom it has to be purchased. Once purchased, the buyer can give it to a political party, which could encash it using its bank account. The scheme was notified on January 2, 2018.However, ahead of the 2024 Lok Sabha election, a five-judge Constitution Bench led by CJI DY Chandrachud (since retired) on February 15, 2024 declared unconstitutional the electoral bonds scheme that allowed individuals and companies to make unlimited anonymous donations to political parties, saying it infringed upon the right to information of the voter by anonymizing contributions through electoral bonds are violative of Article 19(1)(a) (right to freedom of speech and expression.Maintaining that “the integrity of the electoral process is a necessary concomitant to the maintenance of the democratic form of government,” the bench had said, “While quid pro quo and clientelistic corruption erodes the quality and integrity of government decision making, the power of money may also pose a threat to the electoral process itself.”