SC Electoral Bonds Judgment Is Much Ado About Nothing. Cash Is Still King In Indian Elections

File photo of CPI(M) workers staging a protest against the SBI moving the Supreme Court to seek more time to disclose electoral bond details, outside an SBI office in Chennai on March 6, 2024. ( Image Source :PTI )

The Supreme Court has rejected the State Bank of India's plea of granting extension till June 30 to submit two separate lists about donors and recipient parties of electoral bonds. However, the court clarified that it does not want SBI to furnish information linking donors to parties. This defeats largely the purpose of disclosure of information about electoral bonds and will not be sufficient to draw any conclusions about quid pro quo deals. Essentially, the information about which