In 2017 and 2018, petitions were filed (here and here) in the Supreme Court challenging the legality of electoral bonds through which corporate companies and individuals anonymously donated unknown amounts to political parties, with no limits. The Supreme Court on 12 April 2019 asked the Election Commission (EC) to find out and provide information on which parties received electoral bonds worth how much.

The Supreme Court ordered that the information be given in a sealed envelope, a practice brought into vogue by former Chief Justice of India Ranjan Gogoi, so that no one but the judges could review the information. The EC wrote to political parties asking them to answer the court’s question. Of the over 2,800 political parties registered with the EC, 105 responded, though some questioned the Commission’s logic of seeking reports from all, irrespective of whether they received the bonds or not.

The EC submitted the responses in a ‘sealed cover’ to the apex court in February 2020. The list included seven national parties, three state units of national parties, 20 state parties, 70 registered unrecognised parties—those without a fixed election symbol but eligible to contest elections—and five unidentified entities. Two years have passed since the apex court last heard the case despite the repeated reminders from the petitioners. The court has not yet opened the sealed envelopes.

Only 17 Parties Got Donations Through Bonds: The Reporters’ Collective has now ferreted out the information in the sealed envelopes by interviewing the heads of 54 of 70 registered unrecognised parties that replied to the Commission, reviewing the letters the parties sent and crunching data from the annual audit report filings of political parties.

Together, these revealed that only 17 political parties of the 105 named in the EC’s sealed envelope got funds through electoral bonds….