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New Delhi: The Supreme Court has once again reprimanded State Bank of India in the electoral bond case. Earlier, after hearing a plea seeking time to disclose the details, Friday again criticized the bank for not disclosing the alphanumeric order of each bond donated to political parties and said that these details The bank has an ethical and legal duty to disclose.
State Bank of India, the nodal bank appointed by the Central Government for the sale of electoral bonds, has submitted the details of bond buyers and their amount to the Election Commission and it has now been made public. But, this description does not disclose the unique alphanumeric description assigned to each bond. In the Supreme Court, a five-judge Constitution bench headed by Chief Justice DY Chandrachud had earlier declared the electoral bonds unconstitutional and ordered the State Bank to disclose all details including the name of the buyer, date of purchase, etc.
The Election Commission has sent a notice to the bank stating that the alphanumeric details of each bond should also be disclosed the day after the declaration of the details given by the State Bank and which political parties have raised the amount of the bonds and so forth. The hearing of this case has been fixed on March 18. Based on the alphanumeric details it will be possible to trace who purchased each bond and to which political parties it was allotted.
'Who is present from State Bank? We ordered disclosure of details including who bought the bonds, date, name of the buyer. He did not disclose the bond rank. The Chief Justice said during the hearing, 'They must do so.'
The Election Commission's application to modify the court's March 11 order was heard today. The Election Commission said that the data from the inception of electoral bonds till April 2019 has already been presented in the Supreme Court in a sealed cover and the Commission does not have its copy or details. He can disclose these details when assigned.
Based on the Commission's plea, the Supreme Court has directed the Registrar to scan and digitize the details submitted by the Election Commission of India as per the previous interim order and submit it by 5 pm on Saturday. The bench also ordered the commission to hand over its original data and its digital details to the commission's counsel so that the commission can publish these details on its website by the next day.
During the arguments, Solicitor General Tushar Mehta said that he was appearing for the Central Government in the matter and hence the court should issue notice to the bank as the bank is not a party in the matter. Senior advocate Kapil Sibal, appearing for the petitioner, said that the court has made it clear in its order that all details regarding State Bank of India Electoral Bonds should be disclosed. The other side argued that the bank had sought time only to disclose the alphanumeric details.
Rejecting State Bank of India's March 11 request for more time, it ordered the Election Commission to submit all the details by March 12 and also ordered the Commission to put on its website the details provided by the bank by March 15.