The Supreme Court chastised the State Bank of India on Monday for failing to disclose all facts about electoral bonds, calling its stance "unacceptable". The 5-judge panel, led by CJI D Y Chandrachud, instructed the SBI chairman to produce an affidavit by Thursday at 5 p.m. verifying that all data of the Electoral Bonds, including the unique alphanumeric and serial numbers of redeemed bonds, had been provided.
The Court has also instructed the Election Commission to swiftly publish these facts to its website once they are received from the SBI. It happened after the Supreme Court rejected a plea by business organizations FICCI and Assocham asking for the non-disclosure of alpha numeric digits on election bonds that would have linked contributors to political parties that would benefit from them.
Asserting that the SBI would provide the Election Commission with the information, its attorney Harish Salve stated that the data shouldn't be used as leverage by the PIL industry to harass business owners and industrialists in order to keep the courts occupied with PILs that seek an investigation into Electoral Bond donations and potential quid pro quo.
After obtaining the data from the State Bank of India for two days, the Election Commission uploaded the electoral bond information to its website on Thursday. The poll panel made the findings public after the time set by the Supreme Court.
Steel tycoon Lakshmi Mittal, billionaire Sunil Bharti Mittal's Airtel, Vedanta, ITC, Mahindra & Mahindra, and a lesser-known Future Gaming and Hotel Services were among the prominent buyers of the now-scrapped electoral bonds for political donations
