New Delhi: The Supreme Court on Friday morning issued notice to the State Bank of India for not releasing the bond numbers in the electoral bond data submitted to the Election Commission of India (ECI).
Chief Justice of India D Y Chandrachud asked for the SBI’s representative, who was not present, to respond for the unavailability of data while hearing an application from ECI on returning documents which has been shared with the court in a sealed envelope.
According to LiveLaw, the CJI himself brought up the matter pertaining to the lack of complete data released by the SBI. “Who is appearing for the SBI? They have not disclosed the bond numbers. It has to be disclosed by the State Bank of India,” he said.
Senior advocate Kapil Sibal read out the operative part of the court’s earlier judgment, which said that all relevant details had to be published by the SBI.
The ECI has uploaded two sets of data — one naming political parties that had encashed the electoral bonds, and the other of corporates and individuals who had purchased such bonds. The nature of the uploaded data makes it rather difficult to infer whether there were any quid pro quo dealings between companies, which bought the bonds and different governments, the Wire reported. Without the bond numbers being made available in either list, it was not possible to cross-verify which company or individual was donating to which party.
While striking down the electoral bonds scheme, the apex court had said that the voters have the right to know whether there have been any quid pro quo arrangements between parties in government and business houses or corporate interests.
