The Supreme Court on Friday directed the State Bank of India (SBI) to furnish the unique alpha-numeric codes assigned to electoral bonds, in a significant development related to the transparency of political funding.
A five-judge bench headed by Chief Justice D.Y. Chandrachud observed that the apex court's February verdict on electoral bonds mandated disclosure of all details pertaining to the bonds, including the purchaser's identity, amount, and date of purchase.
The bench issued a notice to SBI after the Election Commission (EC) clarified that the bank had not provided the unique bond numbers while submitting details on March 12th, as directed by a previous order.
"The judgement...required the SBI to furnish to the EC all details of the electoral bonds purchased, and as the case may be, redeemed by political parties including the date of purchase...It has been submitted that SBI has not disclosed the alpha-numeric numbers of the electoral bonds," the bench noted.
The CJI remarked that SBI was "duty bound" to disclose this information, which would enable tracing the origin of donations made through electoral bonds.
The matter has been posted for further hearing on March 18th.
This development comes after the EC published details of entities that purchased electoral bonds on Thursday, complying with the court's March 11th order.
However, the absence of bond numbers rendered it impossible to identify specific donors associated with each political contribution.
The apex court also addressed the EC's application seeking modification of its March 11th order regarding the handling of data submitted in sealed covers.
The court directed the registry to scan and digitize this data by Saturday evening, after which the original documents will be returned to the EC for website upload by March 16th.
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