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Supreme Court Labels Electoral Bonds as ‘Quid Pro Quo,’ Orders Immediate Halt by SBI
Supreme Court Labels Electoral Bonds as ‘Quid Pro Quo,’ Orders Immediate Halt by SBI
On Thursday, the Supreme Court gave the State Bank of India instructions to cease issuing electoral bonds right away and to provide the Election Commission with all relevant information by March 6. After receiving information, the poll panel will announce all donations to the public in a week. The top court declared that SBI would provide the Election Commission with a list of all electoral bonds purchased between April 12, 2019, to the present.
Electoral bonds are legal tender that may be bought by individuals or businesses in India and function similarly to promissory notes or bearer bonds. They are given expressly to facilitate financial contributions to political parties.
The only bank with the authority to issue and redeem election bonds is the SBI. The bonds are obtained by the lender’s authorized branches from the Center in various calendar years; the lender does not print the bonds.
In answer to an RTI request last year, the State Bank of India stated that since the Electoral Bond Scheme’s launch in 2018, 27,133, or 55.9%, of the printed electoral bonds valued at ₹15,956.3096 crore, have been sold in 29 tranches.
According to the study, the India Security Press, Nashik, has manufactured at least 674,250 electoral bonds worth ₹28,531.5 crore since its launch between 2019 and 2022. The contributors’ identities were kept private by both the bank and the political parties that received the funds under this system, which allowed for a 100% tax exemption.
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The Supreme Court ruled that the electoral bonds program must be declared “unconstitutional” and repealed. A panel of five judges overseeing the Constitution, led by Chief Justice DY Chandrachud, rendered a unanimous decision on a series of appeals contesting the legitimacy of the federal government’s electoral bond program.
