Following a directive from a five-judge Constitution bench, the Supreme Court registry has returned the electoral bonds data, previously submitted by the Election Commission, back to the commission. The commission had requested the documents, spanning from 2019 to 2023, to be returned so that it could fulfill an earlier Supreme Court order to publish the data on its website.
In response to the Election Commission’s petition stating that it did not have copies of the documents submitted in the sealed cover, the Supreme Court ordered the registry to return the papers by 5 pm on Saturday after digitizing them. The commission has been instructed to publish the data on its website by 5 pm on Sunday.
The Supreme Court’s interest in electoral bonds intensified in 2023 during hearings on the bonds’ validity. The court sought up-to-date information on funds received by political parties through electoral bonds until September of that year, building on its earlier request for data from 2019.
However, uncertainties remain regarding the impact of this published data, especially since the State Bank of India had already uploaded related information on the Election Commission’s website on Thursday.
During the Friday hearing, the Supreme Court bench, led by Chief Justice DY Chandrachud, criticized the State Bank of India for not disclosing electoral bond numbers that could facilitate connecting donor and recipient lists. “Who is appearing for the State Bank of India? They have not disclosed the bond numbers. It has to be disclosed by the State Bank of India,” remarked Chief Justice Chandrachud at the hearing’s onset.
Sources By Agencies