Electoral Bonds: SC Directs SBI To Provide All Details, Including Code of EBs Bought since April 2019

Moneylife Digital Team/IANS 18 March 2024

Economy & Nation

Coming down heavily on the State Bank of India (SBI) for sharing selective information on electoral bonds (EBs), the Supreme Court directed SBI to completely disclose all details in its possession, including the alphanumeric code on each EB.

"In the judgement, we had expressly asked the SBI to disclose all details. The language of the judgement was 'all details will have to be disclosed'. Therefore, that includes the bond number as well. Let SBI not be selective in disclosure of the details," says a Constitution bench headed by the chief justice of India (CJI) DY Chandrachud.

"Now, SBI will not only disclose the bond number, but it shall also file an affidavit again saying that it has not withheld any details," the five-judge bench, also comprising justice Sanjiv Khanna, justice BR Gavai, justice JB Padriwala and justice Manoj Misra, says.

In response, senior counsel Harish Salve, appearing for SBI, says: "We will give every bit of information which we have."

"Mr Salve says that there is no reservation on the part of the SBI in disclosing all details. To obviate any future controversy, we direct the SBI chairman to file an affidavit by 5pm Thursday indicating that SBI has disclosed all details of electoral bonds which were in its possession and custody and no details have been withheld. The Election Commission shall upload the details forthwith upon receipt of information from the SBI," the bench says.

Meanwhile, industry bodies Confederation of Indian Industry (CII), Federation of Indian Chambers of Commerce & Industry (FICCI) and Associated Chambers of Commerce & Industry of India (ASSOCHAM) also approached the apex court. The industry bodies argue that they are comfortable with the names of donors and recipients being disclosed but moved SC only after the apex court issued notice to disclose serial numbers of EBs. However, SC rejected their plea.

On Friday, the apex court issued a notice to SBI for non-disclosure of the unique alphanumeric code of electoral bonds.

Meanwhile, on Sunday, the election commission of India (ECI) released data received from political parties on electoral bonds which it had given to SC in sealed covers.

"Political parties had filed data on electoral bonds in a sealed cover as directed by the Supreme Court's interim order dated 12 April 2019, in the writ petition. Data so received from political parties was deposited in the Supreme Court without opening sealed covers. In pursuance of the SC's order on 15 March 2024, the registry of the Supreme Court has returned physical copies along with a digitised record of the same in a pen drive in a sealed cover," ECI says in a statement.

The last documents, which ECI released, show only raw data related to the date of the bonds, denominations, number of bonds, branch of SBI issuing the data, date of receipt and date of credit. The documents did not, however, then disclose the unique numbers of the bonds.

The Trinamool Congress has written to SBI asking for the unique numbers of the bonds so that the party can comply with the Supreme Court's directions. The BJP has not given any such request to SBI. However, the party has given raw data.

Likewise, the Bahujan Samaj Party (BSP) has denied getting 'any donation via electoral bonds'. The Communist Party of India (Marxist) also denied receiving donations via electoral bonds. However, the Congress said it will release raw data given by SBI to ECI.

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