Supreme Court petition seeks details of poll bonds sold in 2018-2019

New Application Submitted by Civil Rights Trust (File)

A plea has been filed in the Supreme Court seeking disclosure of details of electoral bonds sold between March 1, 2018 and April 11, 2019, saying voters have the right to know the funding of political parties throughout the period since the scheme was launched.

In a landmark judgment last month, the Supreme Court struck down the Centre’s electoral bonds scheme that allowed anonymous political funding, terming it “unconstitutional” and ordered the State Bank of India (SBI), the authorized financial institution under the scheme, to submit Details below: Bonds purchased from the Election Commission of India (ECI) between April 12, 2019 and February 15, 2024.

A new application filed by the Civil Rights Trust showed that 9,159 bonds worth Rs 4,002 crore had been sold between March 2018 and April 2019, a figure that should also be disclosed.

The petition seeks a direction to SBI to share details of electoral bonds sold and redeemed between March 1, 2018 and April 11, 2019, including alphanumeric, date of purchase, denomination, names of donors and ECI parties.

“Once the entire electoral bonds scheme is found to be in violation of Article 19(1)(a) of the Constitution, citizens are entitled to know the details of the donors and recipients for the entire period from March 2018 (the date when the scheme came into operation) .

“The data provided on the Electoral Commission’s platform only accounts for 76% of the total bonds, and voters do not know the details of the remaining 24% of electoral bonds,” the complaint states.

The association, represented by senior advocate Vijay Hansaria and advocate Sneha Kalita, submitted that the deadline of April 12, 2019, would only apply to political parties to provide information to the Election Commission as an interim arrangement while the matter is pending. Supreme Court hearing.

“Once, this Court in its final judgment and order dated February 15, 2024, struck down the entire electoral bonds scheme along with the amendments to the Representation of the People Act, 1951, the Companies Act, 2013 and the Income Tax Act, 1961 Under the Finance Act 2017, voters have the right to know the funding provided to political parties through electoral bonds throughout the period,” it said.

While SBI has been asked to submit details of bonds purchased between April 12, 2019 and February 15, 2024 to the ECI by March 6, the bank moved the Supreme Court seeking a timeline for furnishing the details Extended to June 30. . However, the Supreme Court rejected the request and ordered it to disclose the details before the close of business on March 12.

ECI has been directed to publish the information shared by the bank on its official website by 5 pm on March 15.

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