In a significant development, the Supreme Court on Friday,  March 15, directed the State Bank of India (SBI) to release the unique identification numbers that will reveal who donated to which political parties. At present, it is only possible to know how much a company or individual donated and which parties received donations. These details are in two separate silos submitted by the SBI on March 12 after the SC’s landmark February 15 ruling that struck down the issuance of electoral bonds as unconstitutional. 

The five-judge bench comprising Chief Justice DY Chandrachud, Justice Sanjiv Khanna, Justice BR Gavai, Justice JB Pardiwala, and Justice Manoj Misra, that has been hearing the electoral bonds case reconvened on March 15 to hear an application filed by the ECI. As Live Law reports, the court was annoyed that SBI’s counsel was not present at the hearing and reportedly said, “One thing. Who is appearing for the State Bank of India? They have not disclosed the bond numbers. It has to be disclosed by the State Bank of India.”

Earlier, in its February 15 order, the Supreme Court told SBI to submit the details of donors, donation amounts, and recipients of electoral bonds and the political parties that encashed the bonds to the ECI before March 12. The SC also directed the ECI to publish these details on its official website by March 13. After the court declined to entertain SBI’s plea for an extension to a deadline, SBI filed an affidavit on March 13 stating that it had complied with the court’s order and had handed over the data to the ECI. SBI also said in its affidavit that two separate  files with details of donors and details of political parties that encashed the bonds have been handed over to the ECI in a pen drive. The Supreme Court has now directed SBI to furnish the unique identification numbers with which the donors can be identified with the political parties who benefited from them. 

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