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Synopsis

The Supreme Court has directed State Bank of India (SBI) complete disclosure off all details in its possession, including the alpha numeric numbers of the electoral bonds purchased and redeemed.

"To obviate any proceedings in the future, the Chairman will file an affidavit by 5 PM on Thursday saying that SBI has disclosed all details in its custody", a CJI led bench ordered today.

When the case was taken up, the CJI at the outset said today, "SBI's attitude seems to be, "you tell us what to disclose, we will disclose..", you have the best legal advise available to you..our order meant ALL Details available with you..".

Defending the SBI, Senior Advocate Harish Salve clarified the national bank's stand.

On Friday, Supreme Court had issued notice to the State Bank of India over the issue of it not disclosing the Alpha Numeric Number of the Electoral Bonds in the data that it submitted to the Election Commission of India(ECI) two days back.

Solicitor General Tushar Mehta informed the bench that SBI was not a party to the proceedings and had just file an application which was disposed of.

"SBI has not disclosed the Alpha Numeric Number of the Electoral Bonds. We direct Registry to issue notice to SBI returnable on Monday. A copy of this order be sent to Standing Counsel of the SBI", thus ordered the bench.

On March 13, the State Bank of India had filed a compliance affidavit before the Supreme Court with regard to its directions to disclose the details of electoral bonds by end of day on March 12, 2024.

This affidavit has been submitted by the SBI after a Constitution bench of the Supreme Court had dismissed its application for extension of time till June 30, 2024 for disclosing details of such bonds purchased since April 12, 2019, contending decoding it is a complex exercise and would require time.

The Supreme Court had on February 15, 2024 declared Electoral Bonds scheme for donation to political parties as unconstitutional.  Court had told SBI to furnish all the information on bonds to the Election Commission by March 6, 2024, which was further directed to upload the details on its website. 

It had further directed that Electoral Bonds which are within the validity period of fifteen days but that which have not been encashed by the political party yet shall be returned by the political party or the purchaser depending on who is in possession of the bond to the issuing bank.

Case Title: Association for Democratic Reforms & Anr. vs. Union of India & Ors.