‘Poll bond info partial’: Supreme Court notice to State Bank of India

Satya Prakash

New Delhi, March 15

Taking exception to incomplete disclosure of information on electoral bonds by the State Bank of India (SBI), the Supreme Court on Friday issued notice to the bank asking it to spell out its stand.

Editorial: Electoral bonds

What’s the ruckus all about?

Electoral bonds were introduced to end the dominance of black money in politics. Earlier money was taken in cash. Did that transaction ever become public? So, what’s the ruckus about? Amit Shah, Home Minister

A five-judge Constitution Bench led by CJI DY Chandrachud, which had on March 11 ordered the SBI to hand over the details of electoral bonds to the Election Commission, took exception to the fact that the SBI didn’t make public the electoral bonds’ numbers, saying the bank was “duty bound” to reveal them.

The bank was required to provide the number unique to each electoral bond that would disclose the link between the buyer and the recipient political party.

The Bench issued notice to the SBI after Solicitor General Tushar Mehta said the SBI was not a party in the case and its representatives were before the court when it filed an application which now stood disposed of. “They (SBI) should be here when the matter is going on,” it said.

The SBI should disclose bond numbers, in addition to the details it has disclosed with regard to purchase and redemption of the bonds, it said as it asked the country’s largest bank to explain the reasons for non-disclosure of unique alphanumeric numbers in compliance of its directions. Reading out the operative part of the court’s order, senior advocate Kapil Sibal insisted on behalf of the petitioners that it was an “inclusive” order requiring all relevant details to be furnished by the SBI to the EC for making them public. “Really speaking, we can take exception to what the SBI has disclosed,” the CJI said, posting the matter for further hearing on March 18. The Bench, which also included Justice Sanjiv Khanna, Justice BR Gavai, Justice JB Pardiwala and Justice Manoj Misra, also ordered the return of certain documents submitted to it in sealed covers by the EC. It directed the top court Secretary General to ensure that the data filed by the EC was scanned and digitised by 5 pm on Saturday.