Electoral bonds: Supreme Court issues notice to SBI, says bond numbers not disclosed

Electoral bonds: Cracking the whip on State Bank of India (SBI) for not disclosing the alphanumeric numbers of the electoral bonds received by political parties, the Supreme Court on Friday sought the bank's response while posting the matter for the next hearing on March 18. The unique alphanumeric numbers of the bonds could be used to link each donation to the receiving political party. The top court had earlier ordered SBI to categorically release all the details of electoral bonds issued to political parties, including the purchaser, the amount and the date of purchase.

The Constitution Bench, headed by Chief Justice DY Chandrachud, took note of the submissions made by senior advocate Kapil Sibal and lawyer Prashant Bhushan, appearing on behalf of the petitioner, and pointed out that the alphanumeric numbers had not been disclosed by the SBI. “They have not disclosed the bond number because that has to be disclosed by the State Bank of India (SBI). If you see our judgement, all details have to be furnished by the SBI,” it said.

“We direct the registry to issue notice to SBI returnable on Monday,” the top court said. Solicitor General (SG) Tushar Mehta, appearing for the Centre, had urged the court to issue a notice to SBI before passing any directions.

The Election Commission of India (ECI) on Thursday released on its website data on electoral bond buyers provided by SBI. On Tuesday, the PSU lender informed the court that it had furnished the details to the ECI as directed by the court earlier.

During the hearing, the bench, also comprising justices Sanjiv Khanna, BR Gavai, JB Pardiwala and Manoj Misra, which was hearing an application filed by the Election Commission (EC) seeking a modification of the operative portion of its March 11 order in the electoral bonds case, directed its registrar (judicial) to ensure that the data filed earlier by the poll panel before it in a sealed cover be scanned and digitised.

The bench ordered that the task be preferably carried out by 5 pm on Saturday, and the original documents be returned to the EC once the exercise is completed.

In its application filed in the apex court, the poll panel said the March 11 order had noted that copies of the documents submitted by it to the court in a sealed cover during the hearing be maintained at the office of the EC.

The EC said it did not keep any copy of the documents and added that those may be returned so that it can comply with the court's directions.

With inputs from agencies