Supreme Court directions on Electoral Bonds: SBI should immediately stop issue; political parties should refund and more

The State Bank of India (SBI) should immediately stop the issue of Electoral Bonds, the Supreme Court of India ordered on Thursday today while striking down the Central government's Electoral Bonds scheme as unconstitutional..A five-judge Constitution bench of Chief Justice of India (CJI) DY Chandrachud and Justices Sanjiv Khanna, BR Gavai, JB Pardiwala and Manoj Misra unanimously quashed the scheme as well as amendments made to the Income Tax Act and the Representation of People Act which had enabled anonymous contributions to political parties. .In doing so, the Court also issued the following directions, which includes a directive to make public the details of electoral bonds received and encashed by political parties since April 12, 2019. .1. The issuing bank, that is SBI, shall immediately stop issuing electoral bonds;2. SBI should submit the details of the political parties that have received contributions through electoral bonds from April 12, 2019, till date to the Election Commission of India (ECI). 3. SBI (in the information given to ECI) must disclose details of each electoral bond encashed by political parties, which shall include the date of encashment and the denomination of the electoral bond. This information is to be submitted to the ECI by March 6, 2024. 4. The ECI shall publish this information on its official website within one week of receiving this information from the SBI, that is by March 13.5. Electoral bonds which are within the validity period of 15 days but which have not been encashed by political parties yet, shall be returned by the political parties to the purchaser depending on who is in possession of the bond to the issuing bank. The issuing bank upon return of the valid bond shall refund the amount to the purchaser's account..[Watch pronouncement of judgment].The electoral bonds scheme had allowed donors to anonymously send funds to a political party after buying bearer bonds from the SBI. It was introduced introduced through the Finance Act, 2017, which in turn amended three other statutes - the RBI Act, the Income Tax Act and the Representation of People Act.Various petitions were filed before the top court challenging at least five amendments made to different statutes through the Finance Act, 2017 on the ground that they have opened doors to unlimited, unchecked funding of political parties.The Court today rejected the Central government's stance that the scheme was transparent. The Court, inter alia, opined that such electoral bonds are not the least intrusive measure to curb black money, which was one of the government's stated objectives in introducing the controversial scheme. .Supreme Court strikes down Electoral Bonds scheme.[Read Judgment]