New Delhi: The Apex court on Monday passed strictures against the State Bank of India (SBI) for not complying with its order to reveal all information on the controversial Electoral Bond. The Supreme Court on 11^th of this month has in an order asked the SBI to handover all documents relating to the Bond to the Election Commission of India (ECI) which was to release to the public through its website after four days.

However, the SBI withheld certain vital details of the Bond like unique identification number (Alpha Numeric Serial Code) which irritated the court and Chief Justice D Y Chandrachud in no uncertain terms ordered Bank Chairman to supply entire details of the Bond and also furnish an affidavit stating that the Apex Court order was complied in full with no leftovers. In fact, the alphanumeric serial code can link the donors’ details to political parties.

The court has directed the bank to follow its February judgment and provide all the details of the bonds without any delay. The bench, consisting of Chief Justice DY Chandrachud and Justices Sanjiv Khanna, B R Gavai, J B Pardiwala, and Manoj Misra, has asked SBI Chairman Dinesh Khara to file an affidavit by Thursday, 5 pm, stating that the bank has disclosed all the information of the electoral bonds in its possession and has not withheld any details.

“We had asked all details to be disclosed by the SBI which includes electoral bond numbers as well. Let SBI not be selective in disclosure,” the bench said. The apex court has given a judgment in which it has directed the State Bank of India (SBI) to disclose all details related to electoral bonds that are in its possession, including the electoral bond numbers. The senior advocate Harish Salve, appearing for the SBI, informed the court that the bank will provide the data if the numbers of Electoral Bonds are to be given.

“We will provide all the information we have. The bank is not withholding any information,” said Salve. Solicitor General Tushar Mehta, who represented the Central government, informed the apex court that the objective of introducing electoral bonds was to curb black money. Mehta also expressed concern about the way the judgment was being portrayed outside the court and stated that a series of social media posts was intended to cause embarrassment. He requested the SC to issue some direction in this regard. However, CJI Chandrachud clarified that the court could only work as per the Constitution.

On Friday, a five-judge bench headed by CJI Chandrachud criticized the State Bank of India (SBI) for not revealing unique numbers in the data on electoral bonds that it made public last week. The Supreme Court issued a notice to SBI, stating that the bank was “duty-bound” to disclose the information. The SBI reported that donors purchased 22,217 electoral bonds of various denominations between 1 April 2019, and 15 February 2020, out of which 22,030 were redeemed by political parties.

The data pertaining to the electoral bonds scheme was released to the public on Thursday following directions from the Supreme Court. In response to discussions on social media about the court’s decision, Chandrachud stated that as judges, they only follow the rule of law and work according to the Constitution. The court’s role is to govern the rule of law in this polity, and as judges, they are capable of handling discussions on social media. They are only enforcing their judgment’s directions.