New Delhi:
As the Center and State Bank of India (SBI) flagged the fallout of the Supreme Court's landmark verdict in the electoral bonds case on social media, Chief Justice of India (CJI) DY Chandrachud said the court is “broad enough” to allow such commentary to deal with. .
A five-judge Constitution bench headed by the CJI today asked SBI to make public all details related to electoral bonds. Petitions were heard alleging that the state bank had released “incomplete data” on political financing through the now-abandoned scheme.
During the hearing, Solicitor General Tushar Mehta, appearing on behalf of the Centre, said the court should be apprised of the outcome of its verdict. “The witch hunt has started at another level and not at the government level. Those in court began giving press interviews, deliberately embarrassing the court. There is no level playing field. There is a barrage of posts on social media that are intended to shame,” he said.
Statistics, Mr. Mehta said, “can be twisted however people want.” 'All kinds of messages are posted based on distorted statistics. Would the gentlemen consider issuing an order?' he asked.
To this, the Chief Justice replied: “As judges, we are governed by the rule of law and work according to the Constitution. As judges we are also discussed on social media, but as an institution our shoulders are broad enough. to deal with comments on social media.”
When the Solicitor General cited a “media campaign” on the issue of electoral bonds, the Chief Justice doubled down: “I was recently asked in an interview about the criticism of a judgment. I said that as a judge we cannot defend our opinion. judge, as soon as we make a judgement, it becomes public property.”
Senior advocate Harish Salve, appearing for SBI, said the “media is always with us, with the petitioners saying they will hold the SBI accountable and hold them in contempt”. Mr Salve emphasized that the bank is not withholding any information and pointed out the risk of a series of public interest lawsuits. “Knowing the voters is one thing. But if there are PILs saying investigate this and that, then I don't think that is the intention of the judgment of this court,” he said. Mr Salve also said that “statements made on the basis of high constitutional principles are unfortunately used for purposes other than those for which they were pronounced.”
The bench was in for a stiff discussion today when the Chief Justice said, “The attitude of SBI seems to be 'you tell us what to disclose, we will disclose it'. That doesn't seem fair. If we say 'all the details ', it contains all conceivable data.”
The court ultimately asked the bank to disclose all details, including the alphanumeric number and serial number, if any, of the redeemed bonds. It also asked the SBI chairman to file an affidavit stating that no information was withheld. The Election Commission has been asked to upload the data received from SBI.