Who is Congress leader Jaya Thakur, petitioner in electoral bonds case?

After all, the electoral bonds case is close to her heart. Thakur happens to be one of the petitioners, along with the Association for Democratic Reforms and CPI(M), who had appealed to the Supreme Court seeking the quashing of the electoral bonds scheme introduced in 2017 in the finance bill.

The petitioners filed the PIL challenging the scheme in September 2017, saying it was "inconsistent with free and fair elections".

Electoral bonds are interest-free bearer instruments (like promissory notes) that can be purchased from the State Bank of India within a 10-day window in every quarter of the financial year.

Six years later, on February 15, 2024, the SC five-judge bench, which was constituted to hear the pleas against the scheme, delivered a verdict in favour of the petitioners annulling the scheme, stating that it violates the Constitutional right of freedom of expression and right to information.

Who is Jaya Thakur?

Jaya Thakur is the general secretary of the Madhya Pradesh Mahila Congress. But what sets this politician apart is that she regularly files PILs in the Supreme Court seeking justice on issues such as the lack of availability of sanitary pads for school students. In fact, Thakur is currently in the news for filing a plea in the Supreme Court seeking to restrain the Centre from appointing new election commissioners as per a 2023 law, the provisions of which have been challenged in the apex court.

Two vacancies in the election commissioners' positions have arisen after election commissioner Arun Goel's resignation and Anup Chandra Pandey's retirement.

PIL on electoral bonds

Thakur filed the PIL against the electoral bonds scheme because she felt it was not a “transparent system” and harmful to democracy. She told the media that electoral bonds were furthering "corruption" across the country, which needed to be stopped. She told Indian Express in an interview that the scheme encouraged money laundering and black money as a lot of the funding was happening via shell companies.

The Congress leader felt it was a big issue and though she did not get any encouragement from her own party, she went ahead and got involved in the PIL against the electoral bonds.

Thakur is married to a Supreme Court lawyer and decided to join politics after her marriage. But seems to be more active in law courts.

Free sanitary pads to school children

Thakur, who is passionate about women's rights, has moved a PIL in the Supreme Court requesting that states and Union Territories provide free sanitary pads for every female student in Classes 6 and 12. 

In 2023, on her petition, the Supreme Court directed states to ensure the “availability of vending machines disbursing low-cost sanitary pads in all schools". 

Her other petitions include challenging the extension of tenure granted to the Enforcement Directorate (ED) director Sanjay Kumar Mishra in 2022, on the ground that repeated extensions destroy democratic processes in the country. After the Hindenburg Research report on the Adani Group was released in 2023, Thakur even urged the Supreme Court to probe the group and its associates, alleging they have swindled investors and the exchequer of lakhs of crores.