Senior Congress leader and former finance minister P Chidambaram on Thursday hailed the Supreme Court's striking down of the electoral bond scheme, saying it is a great victory for transparency, the right to know and level playing field in elections.

In a landmark judgment that delivered a big blow to the government, the Supreme Court on Thursday annulled the electoral bonds scheme for political funding, saying it violates the Constitutional right to freedom of speech and expression as well as the right to information.

In a post on X, Chidambaram said, "The right of the people to know has been placed above all clever legal arguments marshalled to defend the illegal Electoral Bonds Scheme." "The judgement of the Hon'ble Supreme Court is a great victory for transparency, the right to know and, if I may add, level playing field in elections," the former finance minister said.

The electoral bonds scheme violated every principle of equality, fairness, reasonableness and democracy, he said.

"The fact that the BJP cornered nearly 90 per cent of the donations by corporates and high net worth individuals will be exposed now," Chidambaram said.

"Let the world know who gave money, when the money was given, and to which party it was given," he said.

"The people will ask why the money was given to a political party," Chidambaram said, adding that people will draw their own conclusions.

In its verdict months ahead of the Lok Sabha polls, the apex court ordered the State Bank of India (SBI) to disclose to the Election Commission the names of the contributors to the six-year-old scheme.

A five-judge Constitution bench headed by Chief Justice D Y Chandrachud directed that the SBI must disclose details of each electoral bond encashed by political parties.

The information should include the date of encashment and the denomination of the bonds and be submitted to the poll panel by March 6.

The Election Commission should publish the information shared by SBI on its official website by March 13, the bench said.

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