Electoral bonds: The Supreme Court on Monday (March 18) pulled up the State Bank of India to disclose the Electoral Bond numbers and directed it to file an affidavit stating that it has not suppressed any information. The SBI, in response, said that it will give every bit of information it has and the bank “is not holding back any information”.
The Supreme Court said in the judgment that it had asked the SBI to disclose all details and that includes the Electoral Bond numbers as well.
“SBI should not be selective in disclosing the details,” the SC said.
The top court further said that it wants all information related to the Electoral Bonds to be disclosed which is in SBI possession.
Senior advocate Harish Salve, appearing for SBI, told the Supreme Court, “If the numbers of Electoral Bonds are to be given, we will give.”
What did the Centre say?
Solicitor General Tushar Mehta, appearing for Centre, told the Supreme Court that the ultimate aim was to curb black money and that the apex Court must be aware of how this judgment is being played outside the court.
“Now the witch hunting has started on another level and not at the level of the central government. Those before the court started giving press interviews and deliberately embarrassing the court. A series of social media posts, at least intended to cause embarrassment, started,” the Solicitor General said.
Solicitor General Tushar Mehta asked the Supreme Court to consider issuing some direction in this regard.
CJI DY Chandrachud said, “As judges, we are only on the rule of law and work as per the Constitution. Our court is only to work for the governance of the rule of law in this polity. As judges, we are also discussed in social media but our shoulders are broad enough to take this. We are only enforcing our directions of the judgment.”
SC’s order to SBI
Earlier, the apex court had directed the State Bank of India (SBI) to disclose the details of the bonds to the EC by the close of business hours on March 12.
The Election Commission on Thursday (March 14) made the data on electoral bonds public. The top court had given the Election Commission time till 5 pm of March 15 to upload the data on its website.
(With ANI inputs)
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