SC pulls up SBI, tells it to disclose all details of Electoral Bonds by Thursday
Expressing displeasure on hiding the details, the Supreme Court on Monday ordered the State Bank of India (SBI) to disclose all details of electoral bonds (EB) with its concerned digital numbers providing specific details of donors and receivers by March 21. The Bench headed by Chief Justice Chandrachud ordered the SBI Chairman to file a compliance affidavit by March 21 by giving all details of electoral bonds purchased from April 12, 2019, to the Election Commission. The apex court also rejected the petitions filed by trade bodies like FICCI and ASSOCHAM to prevent full disclosure and asked the Election Commission to disclose details immediately after getting details from SBI.
“This Court had directed disclosure of information on Electoral Bonds scheme to give a logical and complete end to the proceedings and thus issued operative directions in para b and c of the judgment. Para b requires SBI to furnish details of EB purchases from April 12, 2019, till the date of judgment. It shall include name, denomination, etc. In para c, we sought directions from political parties who received funding through electoral bonds and SBI was to disclose details of each bond encashed by political parties including the date of such encashment. This indicates that SBI was supposed to divulge all details regarding purchase and redemption. The expressions include that it was illustrative and not exhaustive of the disclosure. There is no manner of doubt that SBI shall make disclosure of all information with it and it shall include the details of electoral bond numbers or the alphanumeric numbers with it,” the Bench ordered.
The apex court brushed aside the Central government’s arguments that its verdict striking down the Electoral Bonds scheme was being misused by various persons on social media. Solicitor General Tushar Mehta told a five-judge Bench of Chief Justice of India (CJI) D Y Chandrachud and Justices Sanjiv Khanna, B R Gavai, J B Pardiwala, and Manoj Misra that statistics pertaining to the disclosure of electoral bonds purchased by political parties were being twisted to suit an agenda and that the Court is being embarrassed in the process.
Noted lawyer Prashant Bhushan, appearing for petitioners that there is a great mismatch in donor and receiver data and major political parties did not provide details of donors to the Election Commission.
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Could the SC not order all the political parties to disclose the details of the receipt with the names of the doners, which could have just shortened the process.