'Selective anonymity' is a problem: Supreme Court on poll bonds

New Delhi, November 1

The Supreme Court on Wednesday said the problem with the electoral bonds scheme was that it provided for “selective anonymity” and “selective confidentiality” as the details were available with the State Bank of India (SBI) and could also be accessed by the law enforcement agencies.

A five-judge Constitution Bench headed by Chief Justice DY Chandrachud observed that the problem with the scheme would lie if it did not provide a level-playing field to political parties and if it suffered from opacity.

While hearing arguments on a batch of pleas challenging the validity of the electoral bonds scheme for funding political parties, the apex court said the motive behind the scheme might be perfectly laudable but in an effort to bring in white money into the electoral process, it essentially provided for a “complete information hole”. “The problem with the scheme is it provides for selective anonymity. It is not completely anonymous. It provides for selective anonymity, selective confidentiality…. it is not confidential qua the State Bank of India. It is not confidential qua the law enforcement agencies,” the Bench, also comprising Justices Sanjiv Khanna, BR Gavai, JB Pardiwala and Manoj Misra, told Solicitor-General Tushar Mehta, who was arguing the case for the Centre.

Under the scheme, electoral bonds can be issued or purchased from some authorised branches of the SBI.

During the day-long hearing, he said a big donor would never take the risk of buying electoral bonds for the purpose of tendering it to political parties and never put his or her head on the line by being in the books of account of the SBI.

The CJI said a big donor might disaggregate the donation to people who would purchase electoral bonds with small amounts through the official banking channel and not through cash.

Justice Khanna said one of the issues was selective confidentiality and it might be easier for the party in power to get the information about the electoral bonds.