Electoral Bonds Case: Supreme Court Directs SBI To Disclose All Details By Thursday

The Supreme Court of India has directed the State Bank of India to disclose all electoral bond details to the Election Commission of India by Thursday, March 21.

The Chief Justice of India, DY Chandrachud, said that the chairman and MD of SBI should file a compliance affidavit by 5:00 pm on Thursday.

Taking strong exception to the public sector bank's attitude towards the disclosure of bond details, the Supreme court observed that SBI's attitude seems to be "you tell us what to disclose, and then we’ll disclose".

"We had expressly asked SBI to disclose all details. That includes the bond numbers as well. Let SBI not be selective in its disclosure", the court observed.

The top court said that its ruling had made it abundantly clear that SBI was required to furnish all details pertaining to the donors and the subsequent redemption details of political parties.

"There's no doubt that the State Bank of India is required to make a complete disclosure of all the details it has. This will include the disclosure of alphanumeric numbers and the serial number associated with the bond, if any."

In addition, Federation of Indian Chambers of Commerce & Industry (FICCI), Confederation of Indian Industries (CII) and Associated Chambers of Commerce and Industry of India (ASSOCHAM) appeared before the court and said that it should defer the publication of the alphanumeric numbers associated with the bonds.

However, the court was not inclined to entertain this plea.

Last month, a five-judge bench of the top court unanimously struck down the electoral bonds scheme as unconstitutional.

The court had held that the electoral bonds scheme is violative of the right to information and the right to freedom of speech and expression provided under Article 19(1)(a).

As a result, SBI was directed to furnish the details of electoral bonds that were purchased since April 12, 2019, to the Election Commission of India, which in turn was supposed to make it public on its website.

The data has since then been uploaded on the website, however, during the last hearing the top court pulled up SBI for not disclosing the alphanumeric numbers associated with the electoral bonds.