Electoral bonds: As SC turns down SBI plea, what we know about the scheme and what is to come

The Supreme Court on Monday dismissed State Bank of India’s (SBI) application seeking an extension till June 30 for providing details of electoral bonds, clearing the decks for the publication of the donors’ names by the Election Commission (EC).

In its judgment striking down the Electoral Bond Scheme, the Supreme Court on February 15 ordered the SBI to provide the details to the EC by March 6 and the poll panel to publish the information on its website by March 13. However, two days before the deadline, the SBI moved the court seeking an extension. Now, the court has instructed the SBI to submit the information by the close of business hours on Tuesday and the EC to publish the details by Friday.

The details include the date of purchase of an electoral bond, the name of the purchaser and the denomination for each electoral bond in one list, and the details of every electoral bond encashed by political parties, including the date and denomination of the encashment, from April 12, 2019, onwards. The details of the bonds sold and encashed before that date were given to the EC in a sealed cover earlier as per the court’s interim order in 2019. The court on Monday asked the poll panel to publish this data on its website too.

The SBI had argued that it would take time to match the details of donors and parties for the 22,217 electoral bonds in question. In response, the Association for Democratic Reforms (ADR) and the CPI(M) who were the petitioners against the scheme, moved contempt petitions. Chief Justice D Y Chandrachud told the bank on Monday that the “judgment does not tell you to do the matching exercise”.

Introduced by the Centre in 2018, the Electoral Bond Scheme allowed individuals and corporations to anonymously fund