The Supreme Court of India on Friday pulled up the State Bank of India for not sharing the unique serial numbers provided on the now-banned electoral bonds, data of which was made public yesterday.
The apex court noted that the SBI did not disclose the unique alphanumeric numbers present on every electoral bond. It issued a notice to the SBI and sought a response by March 18.
The SC said the judgment of its 5-judge Constitution bench clarified that all details of electoral bonds were to be made available including date of purchase, name of purchaser, and the denomination.
“The court raised the issue of the information submitted by the SBI to the ECI about the particulars of the bonds. They said that this information did not include the alphanumeric number of the bonds so therefore they have not given full information about the people who purchased the bond as well as the parties who redeemed the bonds,” said senior Advocate Prashant Bhushan.
During its February 14 judgment when the SC bench denounced the validity of the electoral bonds scheme due to its ‘unconstitutional’ nature, it ordered the SBI to furnish details related to the bonds and pass them on to the Election Commission of India (ECI) who, in turn, were to make it public. Originally, SBI was to provide the data, including the date of encashment and the denomination of the bonds to ECI by March 6.
However, it sought an extension till June 30, which SC rebuked. During the hearing, the bench took note of the submissions of senior advocate Harish Salve, appearing for the SBI, that more time was needed for collating the details and matching them as the information was kept in two different silos with its branches.
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Salve claimed if the matching exercise was to be done away with, the SBI could complete the exercise within three weeks. “We had not told you to do the matching exercise. We have asked you for a plain disclosure,” the CJI said. SC subsequently, the public lender was asked to published data on March 12, with EC making it public on March 14.
SBI informed SC that a total of 22,217 electoral bonds were purchased and 22,030 redeemed by political parties between April 1, 2019 and February 15 this year.
Subsequently, as per the SC’s request, EC made the data public. The biggest donor turned out to be a little-known lottery company called Future Gaming and Hotel Services.
Other donors featured on the list included steel tycoon Lakshmi Mittal, Sunil Bharti Mittal’s Bharti Airtel, Anil Agarwal’s Vedanta, ITC, Mahindra and Mahindra, DLF, PVR, Birlas, Bajajs, Jindals, Spicejet, IndiGo and the Goenkas.
Future Gaming and Hotel Services bought the highest value of bonds, worth Rs 1,368 crore, with Megha Engineering and Infrastructure Ltd coming next with Rs 966 crore in purchases.
Among the known corporates, Agarwal’s Vedanta Ltd bought Rs 398 crore worth of bonds, while Sunil Mittal’s three companies together purchased a total of Rs 246 crore worth of bonds.
According to the data uploaded by the poll panel, the buyers of electoral bonds included Spicejet, IndiGo, Grasim Industries, Megha Engineering, Piramal Enterprises, Torrent Power, Bharti Airtel, DLF Commercial Developers, Vedanta Ltd., Apollo Tyres, Edelweiss, PVR, Keventer, Sula Wines, Welspun, Sun Pharma, Vardhman Textiles, Jindal Group, Phillips Carbon Black Limited, CEAT tyres, Dr Reddy’s Laboratories, ITC, Kaypee Enterprises, Cipla, and Ultratech Cement.
The parties that redeemed electoral bonds include the BJP, Congress, AIADMK, BRS, Shiv Sena, TDP, YSR Congress, DMK, JD-S, NCP, Trinamool Congress, JDU, RJD, AAP, the Samajwadi Party, Jammu and Kashmir National Conference, BJD, Goa Forward Party, Maharashtrawadi Gomantak Party, Sikkim Krantikari Morcha, JMM, Sikkim Democratic Front, and the Jana Sena Party.
(With inputs from agencies)
