SBI seeks extension till June 30 from SC to disclose details of electoral bonds

SC on February 15 annulled the electoral bonds scheme for political funding

State Bank of India (SBI) on March 4 moved Supreme Court seeking extension of time till June 30, 2024 to disclose details of electoral bonds encashed by political parties, including the date of encashment and the denomination of the electoral bonds. The deadline is currently March 6.

According to the plea, accessed by Moneycontrol, SBI has stated that there are certain practical difficulties with the decoding exercise and the timeline fixed for it. The plea further stated that due to the stringent measures that they had adopted to keep the names of the donors anonymous, “decoding” the electoral bonds and the matching of the donor to the donations made would be a 'complex process'.

SBI has, in its plea, told the apex court that details of purchases  of electoral bonds  at the branches are not maintained centrally at any one place but in two different silos. "No central database was maintained. This was done so
as to ensure that donors’ anonymity would be protected."

SBI told Supreme Court that "retrieval of information from each silo and the procedure of matching the information of one silo to that of the other would be a time consuming exercise". Furthermore, the bank has stated that donor details are kept in a sealed covers, that are deposited in the main branch at Mumbai.

The plea further stated: "On the other end, each political party was required to maintain a designated account in any of the 29 authorised branches. It was only in this account that electoral bonds received by that party could be
deposited and redeemed. At the time of redemption, the original bond,
the pay-in slip would be stored in a sealed cover and sent to the SBI
Mumbai Main Branch."

Thus, there are two sets of information that are being stored independently of each other and collating this information would require a significant amount of time. The plea said "the retrieval of information from each silo and the procedure of matching the information of one silo to that of the other would be a time consuming exercise".

SBI contended that the purpose of not storing all details digitally was
to ensure that it cannot be gathered easily to achieve the object of the
scheme. According to SBI, between 2019 and February 2024, 22,217 electoral bonds were used for making donations to various political parties.

The plea said, "Redeemed Bonds were deposited to Mumbai Main Branch by the Authorised Branches at the end of each phase in sealed envelopes. Coupled with the fact that two different information silos existed, this would mean that a total of forty four thousand four hundred thirty four (44,434) information."

Citing the above, the bank has urged the SC to extend the time to complete the exercise.

Last month, the Supreme Court in a landmark judgment delivered a big blow to the government and annulled the electoral bonds scheme for political funding, saying it violates the constitutional right to freedom of speech and expression as well as the right to information.

Electoral bonds were issued as a financial instrument for making donations to political parties as first pronounced by the finance minister in the Union Budget 2017-18.

A five-judge Constitution bench headed by Chief Justice D Y Chandrachud directed that the SBI must disclose details of each electoral bond encashed by political parties. The information should include the date of encashment and the denomination of the bonds and be submitted to the poll panel by March 6.