Supreme Court says SBI should also disclose Electoral Bonds' numbers; seeks bank's response

The Supreme Court on Friday sought the response of the State Bank of India (SBI) in the electoral bonds case over non-disclosure of the electoral bonds' numbers which would help identify the bond [Association for Democratic Reforms and Anr vs Union of India Cabinet Secretary and ors]..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."The judgment of the Constitution Bench in Association for Democratic Reforms vs Union of India required the State Bank of India to furnish to the ECI all details of the Electoral Bonds purchased, and, as the case may, redeemed by political parties, including the date of purchase/redemption, name of the purchaser and the denomination of the Electoral Bond purchased. It has been submitted that SBI has not disclosed the alpha-numeric numbers of the Electoral Bonds ... We direct the Registry to issue notice to SBI, returnable on 18 March 2024", the Court ordered.Additionally, a Senior Officer of the SBI responsible for the management and storage of the Bonds purchased and redeemed, was directed to be present in court on the next date of hearing..The bench had quashed the Electoral Bonds Scheme in February and directed SBI to submit the details of the political parties that have received contributions through electoral bonds from April 12, 2019, to the Election Commission of India (ECI).The same was to be done by March 6 but SBI then moved an application seeking extension of the deadline. The Supreme Court, however, rejected the request by the SBI on March 11 and directed that the following details of each electoral bonds purchased should be furnished by SBI to ECI;- Name of purchaser;- Denomination of electoral bonds; and- Details of each electoral bond redeemed by political parties including the date of encashment.The SBI furnished the details to ECI on March 12 and it was published by the ECI on its website on Thursday. The poll body then moved a plea requesting that electoral bonds’ documents submitted in sealed covers/boxes to the bench during the hearings of the main case be returned to it as it does not have any other copy.ECI said that it can upload those documents on its website once the Court returns it.The bench today accepted the suggestion and ensure that the originals are returned to ECI after they are scanned and digitised by the Court. It directed that:(i) The Registrar (Judicial) of this Court shall ensure that the data which has been filed by ECI in pursuance of the interim orders of this Court is scanned and digitized. This may be carried out preferably by 5 pm tomorrow (16 March 2024); (ii) Once the above exercise is completed, the originals shall be returned to Mr Amit Sharma, counsel appearing on behalf of ECI;(iii) ECI shall then upload the data on its website on or before 5 pm on 17 March 2024; and (iv) A copy of the scanned and digitized files shall also be made available to Mr Amit Sharma to obviate the replication of the process of digitization..The Court then noted that the SBI has not disclosed electoral bond numbers and proceeded to issue notice to SBI. .The electoral bonds scheme had allowed donors to anonymously send funds to a political party after buying bearer bonds from the State Bank of India (SBI).It was introduced introduced through the Finance Act, 2017, which in turn amended three other statutes - the Reserve Bank of India Act, the Income Tax Act and the Representation of People Act.Various petitions were filed before the top court challenging at least five amendments made to different statutes through the Finance Act, 2017 on the ground that they have opened doors to unlimited, unchecked funding of political parties.Nearly seven years later, the apex court rejected the Central government's stance that the scheme was transparent..[Read order]