NEW DELHI: The Supreme Court on Monday pulled up the State Bank of India for not disclosing all the details related to electoral bonds calling its attitude “unacceptable”.
The 5-judge bench led by CJI D Y Chandrachud directed the directed SBI chairman to file an affidavit by Thursday 5pm, confirming that all details of the Electoral Bonds including the unique alphanumeric and serial numbers of redeemed bonds have been disclosed.
The Court has further directed the Election Commission to promptly upload these details on its website once received from the SBI.
It came after the SC refused to entertain the plea filed by business associations FICCI and Assocham seeking non-disclosure of alpha numeric digits on Electoral Bonds, which would identify donors with beneficiary political parties.
Asserting that the SBI would disclose the information to Election Commission, its counsel Harish Salve said that the information should not be a fodder to the PIL industry to keep hounding the industrialists and industrial houses who would keep the courts engaged with PILs to seek investigation into the Electoral Bond donations and possible quid pro quo.
The Election Commission on Thursday uploaded data of electoral bonds on its website, two days after it received the details from the State Bank of India. The poll panel published the data adhering to the deadline set by the Supreme Court.
From steel tycoon Lakshmi Mittal to billionaire Sunil Bharti Mittal’s Airtel, Anil Agarwal’s Vedanta, ITC, Mahindra and Mahindra, and a lesser-known Future Gaming and Hotel Services were among the prominent buyers of the now-scrapped electoral bonds for making political donations.
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