Supreme Court Issues Notice to SBI for Not Releasing Unique Numbers Linked to Electoral Bonds Bought, Redeemed

Supreme Court Issues Notice to SBI for Not Releasing Unique Numbers Linked to Electoral Bonds Bought, Redeemed

New Delhi : A day after the data was published on the ECI website, the Supreme Court has alleged that SBI didn't disclose the number of electoral bonds.


A day after the Election Commission of India (ECI) published the consolidated electoral bonds' data on its website, the Supreme Court on Friday said that the State Bank of India has not disclosed the complete number as ordered.

The Supreme Court has also sought a response from SBI on Monday, issuing a notice to the public sector bank.


The Election Commission shared the data of the electoral bonds on its website, which showed that lottery company Future Gaming and Hotel Services is the top purchaser of electoral bonds.

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While hearing ECI's appeal today, the Supreme Court bench directed that once all the electoral bonds data is scanned and digitised, the original documents are to be returned to the Election Commission, which will upload the information on March 17.

After the hearing, senior advocate Prashant Bhushan said: "The court raised the issue of the information submitted by the SBI to the ECI about the particulars of the bonds. They said that this information did not include the alphanumeric number of the bonds so therefore they have not given full information about the people who purchased the bond as well as the parties who redeemed the bonds...The court has issued notice to SBI and listed this matter on Monday."

While hearing the plea submitted by the Election Commission, the top court bench took note of the submissions made by senior advocate Kapil Sibal and lawyer Prashant Bhushan that the alpha-numeric numbers of the electoral bonds have not been disclosed by the SBI.

The matter was heard by a Supreme Court bench headed by CJI DY Chandrachud, also comprising justices Sanjiv Khanna, B R Gavai, J B Pardiwala and Manoj Misra.

Rajya Sabha MP and advocate Kapil Sibal has submitted to the court that a Special Investigation Team (SIT) should be formed to probe the matter of electoral bonds, to make sure that the data submitted by SBI is in order.


Sibal said: "Like the court in the 2G case, where an SIT was made, in this case also an SIT should be constituted to probe the matter. We have to see how the law will see it now...It should also be found out who donated to the PM-CARES. It's a matter of investigation which party got how many funds.”