SBI Instructed to Provide Information on Electoral Bonds to Election Commission by March 6
The State Bank of India (SBI) has formally requested an extension until June 30 from the Supreme Court to comply with its recent judgment. The court had directed the bank to furnish details of all electoral bonds encashed from April 2019 onward. Filed just before the court-mandated deadline of March 6, the application, represented by Advocate Sanjay Kapur, emphasizes “certain practical difficulties” in completing the exercise.
The bank highlighted the complexity of the process, citing stringent measures taken to maintain donor anonymity. The decoding of electoral bonds and matching donors to donations poses a significant challenge. Additionally, the decentralized recording of details of purchases made at branches in two separate silos was done to protect donor anonymity.
In a unanimous decision last month, a five-judge Constitution Bench, led by Chief Justice of India DY Chandrachud, quashed the Electoral Bonds Scheme. Notably, the court directed SBI to cease the issuance of electoral bonds immediately and outlined specific requirements:
- SBI must provide details of political parties that received contributions through electoral bonds from April 12, 2019, to the Election Commission of India (ECI).
- The bank must disclose details of each electoral bond encashed by political parties, including the date of encashment and denomination, to the ECI by March 6, 2024.
- The ECI is required to publish this information on its official website by March 13.
- Electoral bonds within the validity period, but not yet encashed by political parties, are to be returned to the purchaser by the respective political parties or the issuing bank.
SBI now contends that rematching data will be a labor-intensive task, involving cross-checking the date of issue of each bond against the date of purchase by a specific donor. This intricate process aims to reconcile the first silo of information with the redemption details stored as the second silo.
The Electoral Bonds Scheme, introduced through the Finance Act, 2017, allowed donors to contribute funds anonymously to political parties by purchasing bearer bonds from SBI. Several petitions challenging amendments made by the Finance Act, 2017, were filed before the Supreme Court, asserting that the changes enabled unchecked funding of political parties. Rejecting the government’s claim of transparency, the court, after six years, concluded that electoral bonds were not the least intrusive measure to combat black money, one of the government’s objectives in introducing the scheme.
