THE JHARKHAND STORY DESK
New Delhi, March 15: The Supreme Court stated on Friday that the State Bank of India (SBI) ought to have revealed the distinctive alphanumeric numbers of the electoral bonds received by political parties, and asked the bank to provide its response.
The Supreme Court unequivocally declared that the State Bank of India (SBI) must disclose the electoral bond numbers, which establish a connection between donors and recipients.
A five-judge panel noticed that the information provided by SBI was insufficient and issued a notice to the bank asking them to clarify the error. The case was scheduled for hearing on Monday, March 18. The attorney for the SBI was not present in court today.
SC directs digitization of EC’s sealed data
In hearing an application filed by the Election Commission (EC) seeking a modification of the operative portion of the Supreme Court’s March 11 order in the electoral bonds case, a five-judge Constitution bench led by Chief Justice D Y Chandrachud directed its registrar (judicial) to make sure that the data filed earlier by the poll panel before it in a sealed cover be scanned and digitised.
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It said that this should ideally be done by 5 pm on Saturday and that the original documents should be sent back to the EC after the exercise is over.
During the hearing, senior advocate Kapil Sibal and attorney Prashant Bhushan, who appeared on behalf of the petitioner, made submissions that the SBI had not disclosed the alpha-numeric numbers of the electoral bonds.
The bench, which also included justices Sanjiv Khanna, B R Gavai, J B Pardiwala, and Manoj Misra, took note of these submissions.
EC requests return of sealed envelopes containing electoral bonds data
The EC had requested that the top court return the sealed envelopes with the electoral bonds data it had previously submitted, arguing that it was unable to post the information on its website until the envelopes were returned.
The Election Commission stated that, without keeping copies, it forwarded the information provided by political parties about the encashed bonds to the court.
