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Electoral Bond Case: Here’s what the SC told SBI about unique number
- The Supreme Court rules that SBI failed to disclose the unique numbers of electoral bonds as required and has asked the bank to file a response by Monday
The Supreme Court on March 15 issued notice to the State Bank of India (SBI) for not furnishing the Electoral Bond data with ‘unique numbers’. The top court has asked the public sector bank to come up with a response on Monday, March 18.
A five-judge bench of Chief Justice of India (CJI) DY Chandrachud and Justices Sanjiv Khanna, BR Gavai, JB Pardiwala and Manoj Misra said that the SBI has not fully complied with the Court’s order of March 11 in which it had ordered the bank to disclose all details concerning electoral bonds, according to Bar & Bench.
"Who is appearing for the State Bank of India? They have not disclosed the bond numbers. It has to be disclosed by the State Bank of India," CJI Chandrachud said, according to a report by NDTV.
The top court was hearing a plea on SBI for not sharing the unique alphanumeric code printed on each electoral bond, which helps match donors with political parties.
“The judgment of the constitution bench clarified that all details of electoral bonds will be made available including date of purchase, name of purchaser, the denomination. It is been submitted that SBI has not disclosed the electoral bond numbers (alpha numeric numbers). Notice be issued to SBI. We direct registry to issue notice to SBI returnable on Monday," the Court said.
The Election Commission of India (ECI), on March 14, uploaded the data of the now-scrapped electoral bonds for making political donations on its website as per the orders of the Supreme Court (SC). In compliance with the SC order, the SBI handed over the electoral bonds data to the election body earlier this week.
The Electoral Bond petition was filed by the election watchdog Association for Democratic Reforms (ADR). The EC had then moved a plea in the SC requesting that the electoral bonds’ documents be submitted in sealed covers/boxes to the bench during the hearings of the main case be returned to it, as it did not have any other copy.
"The court raised the issue of the information submitted by the SBI to the ECI about the particulars of the bonds. They said that this information did not include the alphanumeric number of the bonds so therefore they have not given full information about the people who purchased the bond as well as the parties who redeemed the bonds," advocate Prashant Bhushan, who appeared for ADR in the case told news agency ANI.
While accepting ECI’s request to return the data for being uploaded, the top Court noted that the SBI had not disclosed the electoral bond numbers and proceeded to issue notice to the SBI, according to Bar & Bench.
The Supreme Court struck down the 2018 Electoral Bond scheme on February 15, calling it “unconstitutional." The apex court, in its ruling, had asked the SBI to furnish all the details related to electoral bonds with the ECI within a stipulated deadline.
On March 14, the Election Commission uploaded two sets of data. One, with a date-wise list of bond purchases by companies and the other with a date-wise list of deposits by political parties that encashed the bonds.
Without the bond numbers being made available in either list, it is not possible to establish which company or individual donated to which party.
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First Published:15 Mar 2024, 01:38 PM IST
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