The Supreme Court on Friday said that the State Bank of India (SBI) has to disclose electoral bonds numbers as well, in addition to the details it has already disclosed regarding the purchase and redemption of the bonds.
“One thing. 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,” said Chief Justice Chandrachud.
The top court was hearing an application filed by the Election Commission. In its application, the ECI sought the return of sealed cover documents furnished by the commission to the court in adherence to its interim order.
The CJI disapproved of the State Bank’s lawyer not being present, to which Solicitor General Tushar Mehta said that they were not parties to the Election Commission’s application.
Following this, Chief Justice Chandrachud directed notice to be issued to the State Bank of India.
Complying with the directions of the Supreme Court, The Election Commission (EC) on Thursday uploaded data received from the State Bank of India (SBI) on electoral bonds on its website.
ECI said the State Bank of India had provided the data about the electoral bonds to the commission on March 12. While scrapping the Electoral Bond Scheme the Supreme Court directed the SBI to give the ECI the data.
The ECI has uploaded the data into two parts – the first one containing 337 pages providing details of entities that bought the electoral bonds and the date of purchase, while the second part consists of 426 pages providing details of the political parties, dates, and the amount. However, the data does not provide details of which entity bought which parties’ bonds.
According to available data, out of the total electoral bonds worth Rs 12,008 crore sold between 2017-2018 and 2022-2023, the BJP received nearly 55%, approximately Rs 6,564 crore.
