SC Orders SBI to Return Electoral Bond Documents to Election Commission

15 Mar 2024 , 02:04 PM

The State Bank of India (SBI) was questioned by a five-judge Supreme Court bench on March 15 about why it had not provided the poll panel with alpha numeric codes on the bonds, a day after the Election Commission posted the electoral bonds data on its website.

The hearing on the subject is scheduled for March 18. Chief Justice of India DY Chandrachud brought up during the hearing that SBI had not provided the electoral bond numbers in spite of the direction requesting that they do so.

Representing the Union government, Solicitor General Tushar Mehta informed the court that SBI is not represented in this court today because they were not a party in the electoral bonds issue. Mehta urged the court to give SBI notice prior to making any decisions.

“Why are they not represented today?” asked CJI. They ought to be present at the electoral bond hearing.” Nevertheless, the court delivered SBI a notice and requested that the bank’s solicitors appear in court on March 18.

In the instance of electoral bonds, the Election Commission of India (ECI) filed a motion to obtain the documents it had submitted in November 2023. The appeal was being heard by the top court.

The SC registrar judicial shall make sure that the data provided by the EC is scanned and returned to the poll panel by tomorrow evening at 5 PM, the bench stated during the hearing. The court stated that the EC may thereafter post these materials on its website.

On the last date of the case hearing, the supreme court ordered the Election Commission to turn in all of the electoral bond data in a sealed cover.

The plea claims that in order to comply with the injunction, the EC submitted all electoral bond documentation without keeping any copies of it. “No copies of the documents/statements filed by the Election Commission of India before the court in the instant case were ever retained by it,” according to the poll panel’s motion.

The Supreme Court ordered it to keep the records with the electoral bond details in the election commission’s office on March 11. In order for EC to keep these papers, it has so requested that all of the documents be returned.

The details of the electoral bonds that the State Bank of India supplied to the EC were made public on March 14. In accordance with the SC’s directive, the SBI provided all of the electoral bond data.

For feedback and suggestions, write to us at [e-mail]