India bank ordered to share electoral bonds data linking donors, recipients
Al Jazeera
The Supreme Court gives the State Bank of India until Thursday to disclose all the information.
India’s Supreme Court has ordered the State Bank of India (SBI) to submit all the details of electoral bonds, including the unique codes linking donors to political parties, just a month before the country’s general election.
The seven-year-old election funding system, called “electoral bonds”, allowed individuals and companies in India to donate money to political parties anonymously and without any limits.
In February, the top court scrapped the opaque system, calling it “unconstitutional”.
In its order on Monday, the Supreme Court gave the SBI until Thursday to provide the Election Commission of India with the unique identification numbers of the bonds, so as to allow donors to be matched with recipients.
“You have to disclose all details … we must have finality to it,” Chief Justice DY Chandrachud said.
