'Electoral bond numbers not published, should release all documents'; Supreme Court tells SBI

NEW DELHI: The Supreme Court on Friday told the State Bank of India (SBI) to disclose the unique serial numbers of the electoral bonds that the bank shared with the Election Commission of India. The apex court, which said that all documents concerning electoral bonds should be released, also asked why there were no serial numbers in the document submitted by the SBI. The court directed the SBI to reply by Monday.

A five-judge Constitution bench of Chief Justice of India DY Chandrachud and Justices Sanjiv Khanna, BR Gavai, JB Pardiwala and Manoj Misra said that the SBI has not fully complied with its March 11 order in which it had ordered the bank to disclose all details concerning Electoral Bonds.

'Who appeared for SBI? They have not published the bond numbers. SBI should disclose this matter," Chief Justice DY Chandrachud said during the hearing.

Electoral Bond numbers are required to identify those who made donations and the political parties which received the money through electoral bonds.

The Supreme Court by its February verdict had struck down the Electoral Bonds Scheme which allowed for anonymous funding to political parties, and ordered the SBI to stop issuing Electoral Bonds immediately. It had unanimously quashed the Electoral Bonds scheme as well as amendments made to the Income Tax Act and the Representation of People Act which had made the donations anonymous.

It had asked SBI to furnish details and the details about each Electoral Bonds encashed by the political parties, which shall include the date of encashment and the denomination of the electoral bond. Following this, the Election Commission on Thursday published the full list of donors who purchased electoral bonds and the political parties that received the funds. The SBI had disclosed this information to the ECI on March 12.