Electoral bonds case: SC issues notice to SBI for not disclosing unique serial number

A five-judge panel of the Supreme Court on Friday, March 15, issued a notice to the State Bank of India (SBI) regarding its failure to provide the unique alphanumeric numbers associated with the electoral bonds to the poll panel. The case is scheduled for further hearing on March 18.

A five-judge bench comprising Chief Justice of India (CJI) DY Chandrachud and Justices Sanjiv Khanna, BR Gavai, JB Pardiwala, and Manoj Misra remarked that SBI had not fully complied with the Court's March 11 order, which mandated the bank to disclose all details about electoral bonds, Bar & Bench reported.

The observations of the CJI from today, follow a warning from the earlier order on March 11. In the order, the court had warned that it "will be inclined to proceed against it (SBI) for wilful disobedience of the judgment if SBI does not comply with the directions of this Court". Following the court's order, the SC had filed its affidavit confirming compliance, signed by SBI Chairman Dinesh Khara.

Prashant Bhushan, appearing for the Association for Democratic Reforms, had claimed that serial numbers would be critical for identifying "who gave bond to whom". He claimed it was implicit in the judgment that the unique number linked to every bond had to be disclosed.

Solicitor General Tushar Mehta, representing the Union government, informed the court that SBI, not being a party in the electoral bonds case, was absent from the proceedings. Mehta requested the court to serve notice to SBI before making any rulings.

The CJI noted that the SBI should have been present for the hearing. He remarked that the SBI would have been available to answer in case the court had taken exception to the data shared.

In compliance with a Supreme Court directive, the State Bank of India (SBI), the authorised vendor of electoral bonds, shared the data with the poll panel on March 12.

The court had instructed the Election Commission to upload the data on its website by 5 pm on March 15.

In an affidavit submitted to the apex court, SBI disclosed that donors had purchased 22,217 electoral bonds of various denominations between April 1, 2019, and February 15 this year. Out of this, 22,030 had been redeemed by political parties.