As some parties do not disclose donors, SC had sought their ‘detailed particulars’ in April 2019 order

Election Commission data reveals political parties failed to disclose donor identities in electoral bonds, sparking Supreme Court debate.

A second set of data published on Sunday by the Election Commission on electoral bonds purchased and redeemed by political parties prior to April 12, 2019 show that many of them did not disclose the identities of their donors.

This is despite a specific order of the Supreme Court on April 12, 2019 that political parties that benefited from the electoral bonds scheme should confidentially divulge to the EC the “detailed particulars of the donors as against each bond”. The order covered poll bonds bought and encashed by parties from March 2018 to April 2019.

Also read: Making sense of the electoral bonds data

“We require all the political parties who have received donations through electoral bonds to submit to the Election Commission of India (ECI) in sealed cover, detailed particulars of the donors as against the each bond; the amount of each such bond and the full particulars of the credit received against each bond, namely, the particulars of the bank account to which the amount has been credited and the date of each such credit. The above details will be furnished forthwith in respect of electoral bonds received by a political party till date,” a three-judge Bench headed by then Chief Justice of India Ranjan Gogoi had directed in the interim order of April 12, 2019.

The question why some political parties like DMK revealed their donors while others could not, either on legal or principled grounds, is likely to come up for debate before a five-judge Bench led by Chief Justice of India D.Y. Chandrachud on Monday.

The five-judge Bench is primarily seeking an explanation from the State Bank of India (SBI), the authorised bank under the scheme, on why the unique hidden alphanumeric serial numbers of each electoral bond was not included in the first tranche of data published by the EC on March 14.

The first set of data received by the EC from SBI had covered bonds purchased and redeemed by parties from April 12, 2019, till February 15, 2024, the date on which the top court struck down the anonymous political funding scheme as unconstitutional.