Bare all data on poll bonds, hold back none, Supreme Court tells SBI
The top court also ordered SBI chairman Dinesh Kumar Khara to file an affidavit by 5 PM on Thursday stating that all details in its custody have been disclosed and that no information has been suppressed.
Krishna Yadav
krishna.yadav@livemint.com
new delhi
The Supreme Court on Monday directed the State Bank of India (SBI) to disclose all details related to electoral bonds, including the date of purchase and redemption, buyers and recipients, denominations, and the alphanumeric serial codes of the instrument used to make political donations.
The top court also ordered SBI chairman Dinesh Kumar Khara to file an affidavit by 5 PM on Thursday stating that all details in its custody have been disclosed and that no information has been suppressed. The court had struck down the scheme as unconstitutional on 15 February.
“There is no doubt that SBI is required to furnish all available details. This classification includes the alphanumeric number and serial number, if any, of the purchased bonds,” Chief Justice D.Y. Chandrachud said. The alphanumeric code will reveal the link between the purchaser of the bond and the recipient political party.
“To prevent future controversies, the bank’s chairperson should file an affidavit by 5 PM on Thursday, confirming the disclosure of all details in its custody and the absence of withheld information.”
SBI, on its part, agreed to disclose the information in its entirety.
The apex court dismissed a petition filed by Citizens Rights Trust, an NGO, that sought disclosure of bond details from 1 March, 2018, to 11 April, 2019, affirming that no pre-dating is necessary. The Supreme Court has directed the State Bank of India to disclose information only from 12 April 2019, to 15 February 2024. The plea claimed that a total of 9,159 bonds worth ₹4,000 crore were sold between 1 March, 2018 and 11 April, 2019.
The government notified the electoral bonds scheme for political donations in January 2018. These bonds were sold only by SBI at its specified branches. The court also refused to hear pleas by industry bodies like Ficci and Assocham to defer the disclosure of bond numbers, arguing that information cannot be requested to be disclosed when anonymity is guaranteed.
During the hearing, solicitor general Tushar Mehta urged the court to issue a notice regarding the misinformation being spread on social media, which is contrary to the judgment of the court in the electoral bond case. He also noted that the judgment of the court has been misrepresented in the press and on social media by the petitioners, and there appears to be a witch-hunt and hidden agenda behind it. According to the solicitor general, the petitioners have been giving press interviews deliberately, causing embarrassment.
In response, the court stated that it is prepared for social media commentary and that when it passes any judgment, it becomes public property. “As an institution, our shoulders are broad enough to deal with social media commentary. Our intent was disclosure... We are governed by a rule of law,” said the chief justice.
In the previous hearing, the Supreme Court ordered the return of sealed covers containing information on the electoral bonds submitted to the court to the Election Commission of India (ECI). The court directed the judicial registrar to digitize the data from the sealed covers by 5 PM on Saturday and return the original sealed cover to the ECI along with the digitized copy.
The apex court on 11 February directed SBI to share the required information by the close of business hours on 12 March. Additionally, the top court ordered the ECI to publish the details of the bonds, previously submitted in a sealed cover to the court, on its website by 15 March. Following these orders, the SBI submitted details of electoral bonds to the ECI on 12 March. Consequently, on Sunday, the ECI made the electoral bonds data public as per the court’s directives.
According to the published list, top donors to political parties include major business groups such as Grasim Industries, Megha Engineering, and Piramal Enterprises. The list also includes Apollo Tyres, Lakshmi Mittal, Edelweiss, PVR, Keventer, Sula Wine, Welspun, and Sun Pharma.
Lottery company Future Gaming and Hotel Services, currently under scrutiny by the Enforcement Directorate, has been the top buyer of electoral bonds, with purchases worth more than ₹1,350 crore.
Various political parties, including the BJP, Congress, AIADMK, Shiv Sena, TDP, and Trinamool Congress (TMC) have redeemed electoral bonds. The BJP received the highest contributions through electoral bonds, amounting to ₹6,566 crore, followed by the Congress with ₹1,123 crore, and Trinamool Congress with ₹1,092 crore.
The unanimous judgment by the constitution bench on 15 February marked the end of the controversial electoral bonds scheme. The court had directed SBI to provide details of bond buyers, purchase dates, and donation amounts to the ECI by 6 March and asked the ECI to publish this information on its website by 13 March.
However, the SBI on 11 March filed a plea for an extension until 30 June, citing operational difficulties, which was rejected by the SC. It asked the state-run lender to furnish the details by the evening of 12 March, and mandated the ECI to publish the details on its website by 15 March.
On 7 March, the Association of Democratic Reforms (ADR) and Communist Party of India (Marxist) filed pleas seeking to initiate contempt proceedings against SBI and its chairman for not complying with the court's deadline of 6 March to disclose the electoral bond details.
Introduced in the 2017 Union budget, the electoral bonds scheme allowed citizens and companies to anonymously donate any amount to political parties. While the government argued that donor's anonymity was meant to prevent retribution, critics said it violated citizens' right to know how political parties were being funded.
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First Published:18 Mar 2024, 11:02 AM IST
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