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Association of Democratic Reforms and Another vs Union of India and Others

Not available · 2024 INSC 209Decided 15 Mar 2024
Not available

Background

This order arose out of a miscellaneous application filed in the long-running Electoral Bonds writ petition. The Election Commission of India (ECI) had earlier lodged certain electoral bond data with the Supreme Court's Registry in sealed custody, pursuant to an interim order dated 12 April 2019. On 11 March 2024, the Court had directed ECI to upload this data on its own website, wrongly presuming ECI had retained a copy. ECI's counsel informed the Court that no copy had been retained since the material was filed in sealed custody with the Court itself.

Decision Breakdown

The Court directed the Registrar (Judicial) to scan and digitize the data filed by ECI, preferably by 5 pm on 16 March 2024, after which the originals would be returned to ECI's counsel along with a copy of the scanned/digitized files, and ECI was directed to upload the data on its website by 5 pm on 17 March 2024. Separately, the Court noted that the State Bank of India (SBI), which had been directed by the earlier Constitution Bench judgment to disclose full details of Electoral Bonds (including purchaser and redemption details) to ECI, had not disclosed the alpha-numeric numbers of the bonds. Since the Solicitor General was not appearing for SBI, the Court directed notice to be issued to SBI, returnable on 18 March 2024, and directed a senior SBI officer responsible for managing bond records to be present at the next hearing.

Lesson Learnt

Even after a landmark constitutional ruling (striking down the Electoral Bonds Scheme), the Supreme Court can and does closely supervise the practical implementation of its directions, including timelines for digitization and disclosure, to ensure institutions like the ECI and SBI actually deliver on transparency obligations rather than treating compliance as optional or indefinite.

Official source (sci.gov.in)View Judgment (PDF)

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