NEW DELHI, 15 Mar: The State Bank of India (SBI) is “duty bound” and has to disclose the unique alpha numeric numbers of the electoral bonds received by political parties, the Supreme Court said on Friday while seeking a response from the bank for not doing so.
A five-judge bench headed by Chief Justice DY Chandrachud said that the apex court in its verdict on electoral bonds case had directed the disclosure of all the details of bonds, including the purchaser, amount, and date of purchase.
All details have to be furnished by the SBI, the CJI observed a day after the Election Commission of India (ECI) put out the entire list of entities that have purchased electoral bonds for making political donations.
The bench, also comprising Justices Sanjiv Khanna, BR Gavai, JB Pardiwala and Manoj Misra, issued notice to the SBI and posted the matter for hearing on 18 March.
“Who is appearing for the SBI? Because in our judgment, we had directed disclosure specifically of all details of the bonds, including the purchaser, the amount, and the date of purchase. They have not disclosed the bond numbers. That has to be disclosed by the SBI,” the CJI said, pulling up the bank.
The unique alpha numeric numbers would match those who had purchased the electoral bonds to the parties they were donating to. “They (SBI) have not disclosed the bond numbers. That has to be disclosed by the SBI,” the CJI said.
“But really speaking, we can take exception to what they have disclosed because they were duty bound,” he added.
The apex court was hearing an application filed by the ECI, seeking a modification of the operative portion of its 11 March order in the electoral bonds case. It directed the registrar (judicial) to “ensure that the data filed earlier by the poll panel before it in a sealed cover be scanned and digitised.”
The EC’s counsel said that they have filed an application for a minor modification of the 11 March order, which also directed that the poll panel shall upload on its website the data furnished to the court.
He said that the ECI had not retained any copy of the data which were earlier filed in the court, since it was placed in a sealed cover.
“While issuing this direction, the court had presumed that a copy of the data which were lodged before the registry of this court would be available with the ECI,” the bench said.
In its application, the ECI requested the apex court that the documents be returned to it, so as to enable it to comply with the 11 March order for uploading the documents.
“The registrar (judicial) of this court shall ensure that the data which has been filed by the ECI in pursuance of interim orders of this court is scanned and digitised,” the bench said.
It added that this exercise may preferably be carried out by 5 pm on Saturday.
Once this exercise is completed, the original documents shall be returned to the ECI’s counsel and the poll panel shall then upload the data on its website on or before the day after.
The bench said that a copy of the scanned and digitised file shall also be made available to the ECI’s counsel.
Senior advocate Kapil Sibal, who was appearing in the matter, said that the apex court’s verdict was quite clear that the SBI shall furnish all the details of electoral bonds to the ECI.
Advocate Prashant Bhushan, appearing for the petitioner NGO, said that the SBI had said in its application filed in the top court seeking extension of time to furnish the details to the ECI that it has the bond numbers.
Solicitor General Tushar Mehta said that he was appearing for the Centre and not for the SBI. “Would your lordships consider issuing notice to SBI? They may have something to say,” he said.
“They should be here when the matter is going on,” the bench said.
Mehta said that the SBI was not a party in the case and they were before the court when they filed an application which was disposed of.
“The judgment of the constitution bench required the SBI to furnish to the ECI all details of the electoral bonds purchased, and as the case may be, redeemed by political parties, including the date of purchase. It has been submitted that the SBI has not disclosed the alpha-numeric numbers of the electoral bonds,” the bench said.
“We direct the registry to issue notice to the SBI, returnable on Monday (18 March),” it said.
In its 11 March order, the top court had dismissed the SBI’s plea seeking an extension of time and ordered it to disclose the details of electoral bonds to the ECI by close of business hours on 12 March.
The court had also directed the ECI to publish the details shared by the bank on its official website by 5 pm on 15 March.
The ECI put up on its website the data on electoral bonds on Thursday, a day before the deadline.
In its application filed in the apex court, the poll panel had said that the 11 March order had noted that the copies of the documents submitted by it to the court in sealed cover during the course of the hearing be maintained at the office of the ECI.
The application had said that, following the directions passed by the apex court in its 12 April, 2019 and 2 November last year orders, the EC had produced information/data so sought, both in a sealed cover (containing 106 sealed envelopes) and in sealed boxes (containing 309 and 214 sealed envelopes, respectively).
On 12 April, 2019, the apex court had issued an interim order, directing that the information of donations received and donations which will be received must be submitted by political parties to the ECI in a sealed cover.
In its landmark verdict on 15 February, the top court had scrapped the Centre’s electoral bonds scheme that allowed anonymous political funding, calling it “unconstitutional” and ordered disclosure by the ECI of the donors, the amount donated by them, and the recipients by 13 March. (PTI)