Citizens' group moves Supreme Court for disclosure of electoral bonds sold between March 1, 2018 and April 11, 2019

The plea comes days after a five-judge Constitution Bench led by CJI DY Chandrachud on March 11 scrapped the electoral bonds scheme that allowed anonymous political funding

The trust seeks a direction to the SBI to share the details of electoral bonds sold and redeemed between March 1, 2018 and April 11, 2019. Tribune file

Tribune News Service

Satya Prakash

New Delhi, March 17

Maintaining that voters are entitled to know funding to political parties for the entire period since the start of the electoral bonds scheme, a citizens' group has moved the Supreme Court seeking disclosure of details of electoral bonds sold from March 1, 2018 to April 11, 2019.

The plea comes days after a five-judge Constitution Bench led by CJI DY Chandrachud on March 11 scrapped the electoral bonds scheme that allowed anonymous political funding and ordered the State Bank of India (SBI) to submit the details of the bonds purchased from April 12, 2019 to February 15, 2024 to the Election Commission.

Now, in an application filed in the top court, Citizen's Rights Trust -- an association of lawyers, social activists, academicians, journalists and students -- has said that 9,159 bonds worth Rs 4,002 crore have been sold between March 2018 to April 2019 which should also be disclosed.

The trust sought a direction to the SBI to share the details of electoral bonds sold and redeemed between March 1, 2018 and April 11, 2019, including the alphanumeric number, date of purchase, denomination, names of donors and parties with the poll panel.

"It is submitted that once the entire Electoral Bond Scheme is held to be violative of Article 19(1)(a) of the Constitution, the citizens are entitled to know the details of the donor and donee of the entire period from March 2018 onwards (the date when the scheme became functional).

"The data available on the platform of the Election Commission represents only 76 per cent of the total bonds and the voters are not aware of the details of the remaining 24 per cent of the Electoral Bonds," read the application filed by the trust.

The cut-off date of April 12, 2019, is relevant only for furnishing information by political parties to the Election Commission as an interim arrangement when the matter was sub-judice before the apex court, it submitted.

"Once, this court, in the final judgement and order dated February 15, 2024, has struck down the entire Electoral Bond Scheme and the amendments to the Representation of the People Act, 1951, the Companies Act, 2013 and the Income Tax Act, 1961 by the Finance Act, 2017, the voters are entitled to know the funding to the political parties by the Electoral Bond for the entire period," it said.

The Bench had on March 11 directed the SBI to submit the details of the bonds purchased from April 12, 2019 to February 15, 2024 to the EC by March 6.

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