 "Supreme Court directs SBI to disclose all poll bond details by March 21")
Coming down hard on State Bank of India (SBI) yet again, the Supreme Court on Monday asked it “not be selective in its disclosure of details” regarding electoral bonds and reveal complete information, including the alphanumeric codes corresponding to each bond. It directed the chairman and managing director of SBI to file an affidavit by 5 pm on Thursday, affirming that the bank has disclosed all details regarding electoral bonds.
The apex court also refused to hear an intervention application by three industry bodies — the Federation of Indian Chambers of Commerce & Industry (Ficci), the Associated Chambers of Commerce and Industry of India (Assocham), and the Confederation of Indian Industry (CII) — to defer the release of electoral bond numbers. The industry bodies, through senior advocate Mukul Rohatgi, wanted an urgent hearing on their application but the court said they could not be given any precedence over other applicants, and that their plea was not listed for the hearing.
In a third tongue-lashing to SBI in recent days, a five-judge Constitution Bench headed by Chief Justice of India D Y Chandrachud said there is “no manner of doubt that SBI is required to make complete disclosure of all the details” which are in its possession. “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 CJI said.
The chief justice said: “There is no manner of doubt that 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 nodetails have been withheld,” the CJI said.
The court also directed that the Election Commission of India upload on its website the details received from SBI forthwith upon its receipt.
The court also directed that the Election Commission of India upload on its website the details received from SBI forthwith upon its receipt.
The court noted that its February 15 judgment mandated SBI to disclose “all details”, including the date of purchase/redemption, name of purchaser/recipient, and the denomination, and the use of the word “including” means that the details specified in the judgment are illustrative and not exhaustive.
To this, senior Advocate Harish Salve, representing SBI, said: “If the numbers are to be given, we will give them. That's no problem.”
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During the hearing, Solicitor General Tushar Mehta also highlighted the challenges posed by social media commentary on the court's judgment and expressed concerns about the misuse of statistics and the potential for misinformation. But CJI Chandrachud said the court was prepared to handle social media commentary, stating, “As an institution, our shoulders are broad enough to deal with social media commentary. Our intent was disclosure…We are governed by a rule of law.”
Later in the day, after the SC refused to hear the plea filed by the industry bodies, Ficci in a statement said: “Ease of doing business is a key element of India's competitiveness globally… Retrospective actions lead to reduction of business confidence for Indian and global investors. This was the basis for our application.”
"Ficci believes in fostering a conducive environment for economic development, where the private sector will contribute to the growth of India to the third-largest economy," the statement said.
Assocham and CII did not issue any statement on the matter.
Meanwhile, the Citizens Rights Trust filed an application in the Supreme Court seeking the disclosure of the details of electoral bonds sold between March 1, 2018, and April 11, 2019, including the alphanumeric number, date of purchase, denomination, and names of donors and political parties.
The Bench dismissed this application as non-maintainable, recording that it sought a substantive modification of the constitution bench ruling.
Currently, the Supreme Court has only directed SBI to disclose information relating to bonds sold since the court's interim order on April 12, 2019, until the date on which it declared the scheme unconstitutional on February 15.
“In our judgment, we have taken a conscious decision that the cut-off date should be the date of interim order (April 12, 2019). We took that date because it was our considered view that once that interim order was pronounced, everybody was put on notice. If we have to go back to an earlier date, it will become a substantive modification of the judgment and will require a review of this judgment. This cannot be done in a miscellaneous application,” the CJI said.
The Supreme Court had on February 15 struck down the electoral bonds scheme calling it unconstitutional and manifestly arbitrary.
SBI on March 4 moved the Supreme Court seeking an extension until June 30, 2024, to furnish information about electoral bonds to the Election Commission (EC). The court dismissed the plea, directing the bank to share all the details with the EC by March 12 and asked the poll body to publish it by March 15.
Accordingly, SBI furnished electoral details to the EC and on March 14, the latter published those details.
On March 17, the EC released further information regarding electoral bonds, including information on the amount redeemed per political party. The EC had submitted those details in a sealed cover to the court in November 2023.