In a giant transfer in the direction of transparency in political funding, the Election Fee of India has uploaded the information of the electoral bonds given to it by the State Financial institution of India. The small print have been uploaded on Thursday, a day earlier than the deadline set by the Supreme Court docket.
The info pertains to purchases of bonds of three denominations – Rs 1 lakh, Rs 10 lakh and Rs 1 crore – relationship again to April 12, 2019, and divulges purchases by firms in addition to people.
The EC’s web site has two lists. The primary is of firms that bought electoral bonds, together with the denomination and dates. The opposite has names of the political events in addition to the denominations of the bonds and the dates on which they have been encashed. There may be, nevertheless, no manner of correlating the lists and discovering out which firm or particular person had donated to which occasion.
The corporate that contributed essentially the most by the tactic is Future Gaming and Resort Providers PR, which purchased bonds price Rs 1,368 crore. Megha Engineering And Infrastructures Restricted was second, buying bonds price Rs 966 crore.
At Rs 410 crore, Qwik Provide Chain Non-public Restricted was a distant third, adopted by Vedanta Restricted at Rs 400 crore and Haldia Power Restricted at Rs 377 crore.
Bharti Group is sixth, having donated Rs 247 crore, adopted by Essel Mining And Inds Ltd at 224 crore. The remaining three within the listing of prime 10 donors have been Western UP Energy Transmission Firm Restricted, which contributed Rs 220 crore, Keventer Foodpark Infra Ltd, which gave 195 crore, and Madanlal Ltd at Rs 185 crore.
Asserting that it has launched the information, the ballot physique stated in a press release, “The Election Fee of India has right this moment uploaded the information on electoral bonds on its web site as acquired from SBI on ‘as is the place is foundation'”.
“It could be recalled that within the stated matter, ECI has constantly and categorically weighed in favour of disclosure and transparency, a place mirrored within the proceedings of the Hon’ble Supreme Court docket and famous within the order additionally,” it stated.
Advocate Prashant Bhushan – who had appeared for the Affiliation of Democratic Reforms, one of many petitioners within the electoral bonds case – identified that the serial numbers of the bonds weren’t talked about within the knowledge. This, he stated, was needed to determine who donated, and the way a lot, to which occasion. He additionally claimed that contributions not being nameless was implicit within the Supreme Court docket order.
“The Data of #ElectoralBonds uploaded by EC (which they are saying is as recd from SBI), doesn’t give the serial variety of the bonds, which is important for locating who gave bond to whom. This was implicit in SC Jt. SBI affidavit stated this information is recorded although in separate silos,” Mr Bhushan posted on X.
The Data of #ElectoralBonds uploaded by EC (which they are saying is as recd from SBI), doesn’t give the serial variety of the bonds, which is important for locating who gave bond to whom. This was implicit in SC Jt. SBI affidavit stated this information is recorded although in separate silos. pic.twitter.com/WTcq0pmDvR
— Prashant Bhushan (@pbhushan1) March 14, 2024
The info may be accessed right here.
Supreme Court docket’s Warning
Throughout a listening to on Monday, a Supreme Court docket bench led by Chief Justice DY Chandrachud had come down closely on the SBI for “wilful disobedience of its order” on the information being handed over to the ballot physique by March 6.
The courtroom had ordered the SBI to submit the information to the Election Fee by Tuesday, warning it of contempt proceedings if it failed to take action. The courtroom had additionally directed the chairman and managing director of the financial institution to file an affidavit after the order had been complied with.
SBI, which is India’s largest financial institution, had submitted the information on Tuesday and submitted the affidavit to the courtroom the day after that. The affidavit acknowledged that 22,217 electoral bonds have been issued between April 2019 and February 15, 2024, earlier than the Supreme Court docket struck down the scheme after declaring it unconstitutional and arbitrary.
The financial institution stated political events had redeemed 22,030 bonds whereas the remaining 187 have been redeemed and the cash was deposited within the Prime Minister’s nationwide reduction fund, in accordance with the principles.