Electoral bond case – uttamhindu.com

The issue of electoral bonds has been in the news for some time now. The Electoral Bond Scheme was launched in 2018 by the then government with the intention of curbing the use of black money in politics. But this could not happen due to shortcomings of the electoral bond scheme. On the contrary, some companies started misusing this scheme, due to which opposition parties started cornering the Modi government regarding the electoral bond scheme. The matter is now with the Supreme Court.

The Supreme Court of the country has reprimanded the State Bank of India and asked it to make all the information related to electoral bonds public by 5 pm on March 21. It is noteworthy that on the orders of the court, State Bank of India has already given some information to the Election Commission, which has also been made public by the Election Commission. But technically this information was incomplete, that is why the Supreme Court asked State Bank of India to provide complete information instead of giving selective information. The court has also directed to disclose the unique bond number of each electoral bond. Along with this, the court refused to consider the arguments of industry bodies ASSOCHAM and Confederation of Indian Industry (CII) against the disclosure of electoral bond details. Chief Justice DY Chandrachud said SBI should not be selective in making disclosures and should not wait for an order in the matter. We believe that the State Bank will be clear and transparent with the court. The Chief Justice said that there is no doubt that the State Bank will have to fully disclose all available information related to the bonds. If there is a specific number or serial number in it, it will also have to be disclosed. To avoid any dispute in future, the chairman of the bank will have to file an affidavit by 5 pm on Thursday stating that he has disclosed all the information available to him and has not hidden anything.

It is noteworthy that the apex court, in its order dated February 15, had ordered the State Bank to disclose all the details including the date of purchase and redemption of electoral bonds, names of the buyer and recipient and the amount of donation and submit this information to the Election Commission. Ordered to hand over. The court had directed the Election Commission to upload all the information on its website after receiving the details from SBI. The Chief Justice said that in the February 15 judgment we had asked SBI to disclose all the details including the bond number. Banks cannot disclose selective information and should not wait for a court order. Senior advocate Harish Salve, appearing for SBI, said that if the number has to be given then we will give it. it is no problem. Meanwhile, the Federation of Indian Chambers of Commerce and Industry (FICCI), the Indian Chamber of Commerce and Industry (ASSOCHAM) and the Confederation of Indian Industry (CII) want that the issue of issuing electoral bond numbers (alphanumeric numbers) made up of letters and numbers should be postponed. Senior advocate Mukul Rohatgi, representing FICCI and ASSOCHAM, wanted to argue in the court to defer the disclosure of the bond number. However, Chief Justice DY Chandrachud gave a negative reaction in this regard.
BJP has received the maximum donations, that is why it is the target of opposition parties. BJP says that BJP is the largest party in the country, hence it has received more donations. The ground truth is that if BJP has received maximum donations in the form of electoral bonds at the national level, then those regional parties which are in power have also received more donations than others. There is an old saying that ‘salute the rising sun’, the same thing is proving to be true in the case of donations also.

Elections are becoming so expensive that everyone from candidates to political parties are in need of donations all the time. Modi government had launched the electoral bond scheme to achieve the goal of preventing black money from being used as donations. But seeing its shortcomings, the court immediately banned it and asked it to make all the information public. The facts that have come to light are shocking. But finding a solution to ensure that black money is not used in politics should now be the priority of all concerned.