Electoral bonds: SC to hear SBI’s plea seeking extension of time on sharing details on March 11

The Supreme Court will hear an application filed by the State Bank of India (SBI) on March 11. The SBI, last week, moved the apex court asking for an extension of time till June 30 to disclose details of each electoral bond encashed by political parties. A five-judge constitution bench, headed by Chief Justice of India D Y Chandrachud, will also hear the contempt plea by ADR alleging deliberate delay by SBI.

The Association for Democratic Reforms (ADR) in its plea said the SBI's application “is mala fide and demonstrates a wilful and deliberate disobedience & defiance of the judgement passed by the Constitution Bench…”.

ADR contended that SBI “has deliberately filed” the application on March 4, 2024, “at the last moment in order to ensure that the details of donors and the amount of donations are not disclosed to the public before the upcoming Lok Sabha elections” and that it “neither discloses the progress made so far & steps taken to comply with the judgment…nor it shows even part-compliance of the judgment…”.

Responding to the plea, CJI Chandrachud said that the contempt plea will come up with SBI’s plea if the petition has been duly numbered and verified. Bhushan assured the court that he would complete the formalities.

Last month, the Supreme Court scrapped the electoral bonds scheme for political funding, citing violations of the constitutional right to freedom of speech and expression and the right to information.

"Curbing black money and ensuring anonymity of donors can't be grounds to defend electoral bonds or need for transparency in political finding," the court said in its verdict.

The apex court asked the State Bank of India to stop issuing electoral bonds immediately and asked it to submit details of all bonds purchased since the apex court’s interim order of April 12, 2019, to the Election Commission by March 6, and asked the poll body to publish these details on the website by March 13, 2024.

"Information about corporate contributors through Electoral Bonds must be disclosed as the donations by companies are purely for quid pro quo purposes," the SC said.

"EC must share info on its website. Electoral bonds which have not been encashed shall be returned," the SC bench added.

Electoral bonds are interest-free bearer instruments that are essentially used to donate money anonymously to political parties. The electoral bonds, introduced in 2018, are issued by the State Bank of India (SBI) and are sold in multiples of Rs 1,000, Rs 10,000, Rs 1 lakh, Rs 10 lakh, and Rs 1 crore.