The Supreme Court emphasized on Monday that the State Bank of India (SBI) cannot cherry-pick which details to disclose regarding electoral bonds and must provide all relevant information within its possession, including the unique bond numbers linking buyers to political parties. Chief Justice D Y Chandrachud, leading a five-judge bench, reiterated that the apex court had previously instructed the bank to divulge all bond details without delay, stressing that SBI should not await further directives on this matter.
"We explicitly mandated the disclosure of all details, including the electoral bond numbers, by SBI. It is imperative for SBI to be transparent in its disclosures," remarked the bench, which also comprised Justices Sanjiv Khanna, B R Gavai, J B Pardiwala, and Manoj Misra, during the hearing.
Recently, the apex court had summoned the nation's largest bank to elucidate its rationale for withholding unique alphanumeric numbers, asserting that SBI was obligated to unveil them.
On April 12, 2019, the Supreme Court issued an interim order stipulating that political parties must submit information regarding donations received and anticipated donations to the Election Commission (EC) in sealed envelopes.
In its groundbreaking decision on February 15, the apex court invalidated the government's electoral bonds scheme, branding anonymous political funding as "unconstitutional" and directing the EC to disclose donors, donation amounts, and recipients by March 13.
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