In a recent development, the Supreme Court expressed dissatisfaction with the State Bank of India (SBI) for failing to disclose the unique numbers of electoral bonds, as mandated by a previous judgment.

Chief Justice of India, D Y Chandrachud, highlighted that the Constitution Bench’s judgment required SBI to provide the Election Commission of India (ECI) with comprehensive details regarding the electoral bonds, including purchase and redemption dates, as well as purchaser names. However, SBI reportedly did not disclose the unique alphanumeric numbers associated with the bonds.

In response to this discrepancy, the Chief Justice directed the Solicitor General to issue a notice to SBI regarding the matter.

Furthermore, the Supreme Court instructed the registrar judicial to oversee the scanning and digitization of relevant documents. Once this process is completed, the original documents will be returned to the Election Commission, which will then upload them onto its website by March 17.

The Election Commission had previously requested a modification of the operative portion of a March 11 order in the electoral bonds case. The order had stipulated that copies of documents submitted to the apex court in sealed cover during proceedings should be retained at the Election Commission’s office. However, the Commission clarified that it did not retain any copies and requested the documents’ return to comply with the court’s directives.

This development comes against the backdrop of the Election Commission releasing a comprehensive list of entities that have purchased electoral bonds for political donations. Notable names among these include prominent figures such as steel tycoon Lakshmi Mittal, Sunil Bharti Mittal’s Airtel, Anil Agarwal’s Vedanta, ITC, Mahindra and Mahindra, and Future Gaming and Hotel Services, among others.

While it is public knowledge that the ruling Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) received the highest amount of donations, exceeding Rs 6,000 crore, followed by the Congress party, the disclosed data only reveals the amounts donated by each entity or individual. The details of which party received donations from these entities remain undisclosed.

Of particular interest is the revelation that Future Gaming, previously under investigation by the Enforcement Directorate in March 2022, purchased electoral bonds worth over Rs 1,350 crore under two different sets of companies.