Electoral bonds: SC issues notice to SBI, says bond numbers not disclosed

The Supreme Court said on Friday that the State Bank of India (SBI) should have disclosed the unique alpha-numeric numbers of the electoral bonds received by political parties and sought the bank’s response.

A five-judge Constitution bench headed by Chief Justice D Y Chandrachud, which was hearing an application filed by the Election Commission (EC) seeking a modification of the operative portion of its March 11 order in the electoral bonds case, directed its registrar (judicial) to ensure that the data filed earlier by the poll panel before it in a sealed cover be scanned and digitised.

It said this be preferably carried out by 5 pm on Saturday and once the exercise is completed, the original documents be returned to the EC.

During the hearing, the bench, also comprising justices Sanjiv Khanna, B R Gavai, J B Pardiwala and Manoj Misra, took note of the submissions made by senior advocate Kapil Sibal and lawyer Prashant Bhushan, who appeared in the matter on behalf of the petitioner, that the alpha-numeric numbers of the electoral bonds have not been disclosed by the SBI.

It issued a notice to the bank and posted the matter for hearing on March 18.

In its application filed in the apex court, the poll panel said the March 11 order had noted that the copies of the documents submitted by it to the court in a sealed cover during the course of the hearing be maintained at the office of the EC.

The EC said it did not keep any copy of the documents and added that those may be returned so that it can comply with the court’s directions.