- By Aashish Vashistha
- Fri, 15 Mar 2024 01:09 PM (IST)
- Source:JND
Electoral Bonds Case: A day after the Election Commission released electoral bonds data on its official website, the Supreme Court on Friday came down heavily on the State Bank of India (SBI) for not sharing complete data on electoral bonds and asked the public sector bank to publish the unique number of the bonds, which reveal the link between donors and political parties.
A five-judge bench of the apex court said that the SBI should disclose the unique identification number of each electoral bond and issued a notice seeking its response on Monday, March 18.
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“Who is appearing for the State Bank of India? They have not disclosed the bond numbers. It has to be disclosed by the State Bank of India," Chief Justice Chandrachud said, as quoted by the Live Law.
In response, Solicitor General Tushar Mehta urged the top court to issue notice to the SBI. "I am not appearing for the State Bank of India. But Your Lordships may issue notice to the SBI since they may have something to say. I feel that they need to be here,” Mehta was quoted as saying by the Live Law.
The development comes as the top court was hearing an application filed by the Election Commission (EC) seeking the return of the sealed cover documents it provided to the top court in adherence to its interim order.
The poll body in its plea clarified that it had not kept any copies of the documents, or data submitted to the court in sealed covers and requested their return as per the court's directions.
Earlier, the top court called the electoral bonds scheme ‘unconstitutional’ and struck down the scheme in its landmark judgment on February 15, saying that it breaches the right to information under Article 19(1)(a) of the Constitution.
The electoral bonds scheme was notified by the central government on January 2, 2018, as an alternative to the cash donations made to the political parties to bring transparency in political funding.