Supreme Court on Monday said the State Bank of India (SBI) cannot choose to be selective and must disclose all possible details related to electoral bonds in its possession, including unique bond numbers revealing the connection between the buyer and the recipient political party.
A five-judge bench headed by Chief Justice D Y Chandrachud 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, also comprising Justices Sanjiv Khanna, B R Gavai, J B Pardiwala, and Manoj Misra, orally said during the hearing.
The previous week, the apex court summoned SBI to clarify why it failed to disclose unique alphanumeric numbers as per its instructions, accentuating that the bank was 'duty bound' to do so.
On April 12, 2019, the apex court issued an interim order directing that the information about the donations received and donations that 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.
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