New Delhi, March 15: The Supreme Court emphasized on Friday that the State Bank of India (SBI) should have disclosed the unique alpha-numeric numbers of the electoral bonds received by political parties and has sought a response from the bank.
A five-judge Constitution bench led by Chief Justice D Y Chandrachud, which was addressing an application filed by the Election Commission (EC) seeking a modification of the operative portion of its March 11 order in the electoral bonds case, directed its registrar (judicial) to ensure that the data previously filed by the poll panel before it in a sealed cover be scanned and digitized.
The bench, comprising justices Sanjiv Khanna, B R Gavai, J B Pardiwala, and Manoj Misra, took note of the submissions made by senior advocate Kapil Sibal and lawyer Prashant Bhushan, representing the petitioner, that the alpha-numeric numbers of the electoral bonds have not been disclosed by the SBI.
Consequently, it issued a notice to the bank and scheduled the matter for a hearing on March 18.
In its application filed in the apex court, the poll panel stated that the March 11 order had acknowledged that the copies of the documents submitted by it to the court in a sealed cover during the hearing should be maintained at the office of the EC.
The EC clarified that it did not retain any copies of the documents and urged for their return so that it could comply with the court’s directions.
