The Supreme Court
on Monday directed the State Bank of India to make a complete disclosure of all
details related to electoral bonds, including the unique bond numbers that
would disclose the link between the buyer and the recipient political party, by
March 21.
A five-judge
constitution bench headed by Chief Justice D Y Chandrachud said there is
"no manner of doubt" that the SBI is required to disclose complete
details of the bonds.
It directed the
SBI chairman to file an affidavit before it by 5 pm on March 21 indicating that
the bank has disclosed all the details.
During the
hearing, the bench, also comprising Justices Sanjiv Khanna, B R Gavai, J B
Pardiwala and Manoj Misra, observed that the SBI can't be selective and has to
disclose all "conceivable" electoral bond details in its possession,
including unique bond numbers that would disclose the link between the buyer
and the recipient political party.
The bench said
the apex court had, in its verdict in the electoral bonds case, asked the bank
to disclose all the details of the bonds and it should not wait for further
orders on this aspect.
"We had
asked all details to be disclosed by the SBI which includes electoral bond
numbers as well. Let SBI not be selective in disclosure," the bench orally
said during the hearing.
Last week, the
top court issued a notice to the country's largest bank to explain the reasons
for the non-disclosure of unique alphanumeric numbers in compliance with its
directions, saying the SBI was "duty bound" to reveal them.
On April 12,
2019, the apex court issued an interim order directing that the information
about the donations received and donations which will be received must be
submitted by political parties to the EC in a sealed cover.
In its landmark
verdict on February 15, the top court had scrapped the Centre's electoral bonds
scheme that allowed anonymous political funding, calling it
"unconstitutional" and ordered disclosure by the EC of donors, the
amount donated by them and the recipients by March 13.