SBI to explain absence of bond serial numbers in SC hearing today

All eyes are on the Supreme Court of India today after it issued a notice to the State Bank of India asking why it has not disclosed the serial numbers of the bonds when it handed over the data to the Election Commission. The SBI had, initially, maintained that it kept its data in two separate zones -- one containing the identities of the bond buyers, and another containing transaction details such as date of purchase, denomination, serial numbers etc. It later merged the two and submitted it to the Election Commission, but there was no column for serial numbers in the submitted data. The bank has to explain this lacuna in front of the court today.