The Supreme Court on Friday issued a notice to the State Bank of India for its failure to reveal the alphanumeric details of the electoral bonds while disclosing other data related to them, as directed in its February 15 judgment.

“We can take exception to what they (the SBI) have not disclosed,” the five-judge constitution bench said.

The details disclosed by the SBI reveal which bond buyer donated how much and, separately, which political party received what amount. But without the alphanumeric details, it cannot be known which donor paid which party or parties.

The absence of alphanumeric details, therefore, makes it difficult to ascertain any possible quid pro quo arrangements — a danger highlighted by the February 15 judgment — between donor and recipient, experts said.

The five-judge bench headed by Chief Justice of India D.Y. Chandrachud — which included Justices Sanjiv Khanna, B.R. Gavai, J.B. Pardiwala and Manoj Misra — took suo motu cognisance of the SBI’s failure to reveal the alphanumeric details.

As soon as the hearing began, the bench — which was dealing with a different matter — asked a packed courtroom who was representing the SBI.

“They have not disclosed the bond numbers. It has to be disclosed by the State Bank of India,” Justice Chandrachud remarked.

Solicitor-general Tushar Mehta, appearing for the Centre, said that though he was not representing the public-sector bank, he would request the court to issue a formal notice to the SBI “since they may have something to say”.

“I feel that they need to be here, though they are not a party to this matter,” Mehta said.

The bench said: “We had in our February 15 judgment directed disclosure specifically of all the details of the electoral bonds, including date of their purchase, the amount, names of purchasers, the political parties which redeemed the bonds, etc. But the bank has not disclosed the numbers of the bonds purchased and encashed. Why?”

It added: “We can take exception to what they have not disclosed. Our direction was clear. We directed disclosure of entire details. They have not disclosed the bond numbers. They have to disclose each bond number too.”

After issuing a formal notice to the SBI, the bench posted the next hearing to March 18.

The bench had assembled to deal with an Election Commission plea for the return of certain original documents on the electoral bonds that the poll panel had submitted to the court following directives passed in April 2019 and November 2023.

The commission said it had not retained any photocopies of the originals, which it now needed to upload on its official website.

The court had on March 11 asked the poll panel to publish these old documents along with the new SBI disclosures on the donors’ identities and other data.

On Friday, the bench accepted the commission’s application for the return of the original documents and asked it to upload these on its website by March 17.

As for the latest SBI disclosures, the Election Commission put them up on its website on Thursday.