Supreme Court Asks SBI To Disclose All Details Of Electoral Bonds Including Serial Numbers; Harish Salve Says Witch-Hunting Started

Asserting that the State Bank of India (SBI) was required to disclose all details related to the electoral bonds, the Supreme Court on Monday (18 March) issued an order asking to include the alphanumeric number and the serial number of the bonds redeemed as well.

The bench led by Chief Justice of India (CJI) DY Chandrachud noted senior advocate Harish Salve's statement on behalf of the SBI that there is no reservation in disclosing all details.

"To obviate any future controversy, we direct the SBI Chairman to file an affidavit by 5 pm Thursday indicating that SBI has disclosed all details of electoral bonds which were in its possession and custody and no details have been withheld," the order said.

The Supreme Court also asked the Election Commission of India (ECI) to upload the details forthwith after receiving the information from the SBI, LiveLaw reported.

This comes a day after the ECI disclosed more data on the electoral bonds. Earlier, the Supreme Court criticised the SBI for failing to disclose the unique numbers of electoral bonds, as required by the court's previous ruling.

During the hearing, Salve also pointed out how the court's judgment of electoral bond data is playing out and the witch-hunting has started with a series of social media posts.

CJI responded to it by saying, "As an institution, our shoulders are broad enough to deal with social media commentary. Our intent was disclosure. We are governed by a rule of law."