The Fighters Behind The Electoral Bond Case: Prashant Bhushan And Kapil Sibal

On February 15, Supreme Court deemed the electoral bonds scheme unconstitutional, citing violations of citizens right to information. The ruling led to the apex court ordering the State Bank of India (SBI) to disclose the specifics of each electoral bond including donor names, date of encashment and the donation amount. This historic ruling was a public interest crusade involving two key people – Prashant Bhushan and Kapil Sibal.

Prashant Bhushan

Advocate and activist Prashant Bhushan believes in the people’s right to information. Throughout his career, he has made sure to prove that. He has represented the people in Narmada Bachao Andolan, protestors against Kudankulam’s nuclear power and survivors of the Bhopal gas tragedy. His work in public interest litigation has given voice to protest groups, brought environmental issues to the forefront and addressed corruption related issues.

Having consistently used his platform to represent progressive movements and people’s struggles, Bhushan has been instrumental in shedding light to the rights of migrant workers. In 2023, he played a pivotal role in providing ration cards to 8 crore workers whose name was not covered under the Food Security Act. The 2G and coal allocation cases and Enron and Reliance receiving the right to develop Panna-Mukta oil fields are some of the stand out causes that Bhushan has taken on.

During 2010 and 2015, he joined the Anna Hazare movement and was one of the co-founders of the Aam Aadmi Party, which he soon left. Bhushan’s father, Shanti Bhushan was one of the most successful commercial lawyers, a founder member and treasurer of the BJP (although he left quickly) and served as a law minister in the cabinet of Morarji Desai.

Even at the age of 67, the lawyer and activist has no intention of stopping anytime soon.

Kapil Sibal

Kapil Sibal is a senior advocate and a Rajya Sabha MP. He was also the one who led the argument on behalf of the petitioners in the electoral bond case in the Supreme Court. Sibal believes that the court’s ruling will restore the basic structure of the Constitution – free and fair elections.

Considered to be one of the most famous lawyers of India, the Harvard graduate practiced law in Wall Street. He has also served as the President of Supreme Court Bar Association. After an unsuccessful attempt in the Lok Sabha elections where he faced Sushma Swaraj as his opponent, Sibal entered Rajya Sabha in 1998 representing Bihar. In 2004, standing against BJP’s Smriti Irani, he contested from Chandni Chowk and emerged victorious, under the Congress banner. He repeated his victory in 2009 as well.

Sibal served as a minister in Dr Manmohan Singh’s cabinet. Son of renowned advocate Hira Lall Sibal, Kapil Sibal is credited to have introduced the Continuous and Comprehensive Evaluation (CCE) system for grades 9 and 10 in India. He also represented applicants seeking a stay on the implementation of the Citizenship Amendment Act (CAA) in 2019.

In 2022, he resigned from Congress and filed a nomination for Rajya Sabha as an independent candidate, backed by the Samajwadi Party. Sibal believes that with the electoral bond scheme declared unconstitutional, it will pave the way for accountability.