In a groundbreaking verdict, the Supreme Court of India has pronounced that the electoral bond scheme violates Right to Information and Freedom of Speech and that it is unconstitutional. On Thursday, an SC bench ordered the State Bank of India to immediately stop the issue of such bonds.

According to Live Law, the bench has also asked SBI to submit the details of donations through electoral bonds and the details of the political parties which received the contributions since 12 April 2019. SC also directed SBI to submit the details of electoral bonds purchased since 12 April 2019 including the date of purchase of each electoral bond, the name of the purchaser of the bond and the denomination of the electoral bond purchased.

The Supreme Court has ordered the Election Commission to publish these details on its website by 13 March 2024.

The Bench included Chief Justice of India DY Chandrachud and Justices Sanjiv Khanna, BR Gavai, JB Pardiwala and Manoj Misra.

The petitioners, Association for Democratic Reforms (ADR), Communist Party of India (Marxist) and Dr Jaya Thakur, had challenge the amendments to the Income Tax Act, the Representation of Peoples Act, the Companies Act introduced by the Finance Act 2017 which paved the way for electoral bonds scheme.

According to Live Law, the Union Government defended the scheme on the grounds that it curbed black money as it ensured that the contributions were coming through banking channels. However, CJI DY Chandrachud stated in his judgement, “The Electoral Bonds scheme is not the only means for curbing black money in electoral financing. There are other alternatives which substantially fulfil the purpose and impact the right to information minimally when compared to the impact of electoral bonds on the right to information.”

“A welcome verdict!” Communist Party of India (Marxist) General Secretary Sitaram Yechury said on X. “Glad that this unanimous verdict of the Supreme Court bench has upheld our contention”, he said while also congratulating their Counsel Shadan Farasat and others who effectively argued the case.

Congress too welcomed the verdict and said that it will “reinforce the power of votes over notes.”

In a post on X, Congress chief Mallikarjuna Kharge said that the Party had been against the “opaque and undemocratic” scheme since the day it was launched and welcomed the SC’s decision “which has struck down this ‘Black Money Conversion’ scheme of the Modi Govt, calling it “Unconstitutional”.”

“We remember how the Modi Govt, PMO and FM bulldozed every institution – RBI, Election Commission, Parliament and Opposition to fill BJP’s coffers. No wonder, 95% of the funding under this scheme was received by BJP,” Kharge alleged. He also hoped that the Government will listen to the apex court “so that Democracy, Transparency and level-playing field persists.”