Electoral Bonds: SC asks SBI to furnish all details available with it, asks CMD to file affidavit

SC refuses to hear plea by CII, FICCI and ASSOCHAM in electoral bonds case

The Supreme Court on March 18 asked the chairman and managing director of State Bank of India to file an affidavit saying the bank has disclosed all the details regarding the electoral bonds.

A five-judge bench of the apex court led by Chief Justice of India (CJI) DY Chandrachud further asked to submit the affidavit by March 21. The SBI has been asked to reveal details of electoral bonds, including the alphanumeric bond number from April 2019 to date. The Election Commission of India (ECI) has been directed to upload the details forthwith.

"There is no manner of doubt that the SBI is required to furnish all details available with it. This, we clarify, will include the alphanumeric number and serial number, if any, of the bonds purchased. In order to avoid any controversy in the future, the chairperson of the bank should file an affidavit by 5 PM on Thursday that it has disclosed all details in its custody and that no details have been witheld."  CJI said “Let SBI not be selective in disclosure, do not wait for orders, we believe that SBI will be candid and fair to the court.”

Thus it passed a direction asking SBI's CMD to file an affidavit stating that they have not withheld any documents pertaining to electoral bonds from public disclosure.

Post the hearing, SBI's shares almost slid to the day's low.

The court also clarified that it took a conscious call about not asking the authorities to reveal details of the electoral bonds purchased and redeemed prior to April 12, 2019. Thus, the court dismissed an application for directions to reveal bond details prior to April 2019.

During the course of the hearing, senior advocate Harish Salve, who appeared for SBI told the court that while SBI had no problem in revealing the details of the electoral bonds, it had interpreted the order differently. CJI said "CJI “Let SBI not be selective in disclosure, do not wait for orders, we believe that SBI will be candid and fair to the court.”

The above transpired in light of the apex court issuing notice to SBI on March 15 for not furnishing alphanumeric numbers on the bonds to the poll panel despite the judgment asking them to do so.

The Electoral Bonds saga

The Supreme Court, in February 2024, struck down electoral bonds as unconstitutional on the ground that the non-disclosure of information regarding the funding of political parties is violative of the right to information of citizens. The top court further directed SBI to furnish all the date related to electoral bonds.

However, on March 4, SBI moved an application seeking an extension till June 30 to disclose details of electoral bonds encashed by political parties. The court dismissed the plea, directing the SBI to share all the details with EC by March 12 and asked the EC to publish it by March 15.

While the SBI had said it would require time to match the details of the donor with the political party they have donated to, the Supreme Court clarified that it need not do any such matching and would have to submit the details that are readily available with it.

Accordingly, SBI furnished EB details to ECI on March 12, and on March 14, the EC published the details of electoral bonds provided by the SBI.

On March 17, ECI released further information regarding the electoral bonds, including information on the amount redeemed per political party. The data was published after the apex court passed an order returning all the details regarding the bonds, ECI had submitted to it in November 2023.