Electoral bonds case: SC dismisses SBI's extension plea, asks it to submit details by March 12

What steps have you taken to disclose details of electoral bonds: SC to SBI

The Supreme Court on March 11 dismissed the request of State Bank of India (SBI) seeking extension 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 bond. The SBI has been directed to disclose details by the close of business hours of March 12

A five-judge bench of the court, led by Chief Justice of India DY Chandrachud, said it had asked the SBI to do a “plain disclosure” as per the court's judgment. The top court also directed the Election Commission to publish information shared by SBI by 5 PM on March 15.

Furthermore, the chairman and managing director of the bank has been asked to file an affidavit after the details are submitted and warned him of contempt action if the order is not complied with.

During the course of the hearing, SC noted that SBI's plea neither discloses what has been done in the 26 days since its February 11 order. Further the SC expressed its displeasure over a Assistant General Manager (AGM) filing an application to vary an order of the constitution bench.

While the apex court directed SBI to disclose details of electoral bonds by March 6, the bank, in its plea filed on March 4, contended 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 the bank 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," the bank said in its plea.

The bank 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 stated that donor details are kept in sealed covers, which are deposited in the main branch in Mumbai.

Meanwhile, the petitioner in the electoral bonds case Association for Democratic Reforms (ADR) and the Communist Party of India (Marxist) (CPI (M)) filed contempt petitions against SBI for not complying with the court’s order.

In February 2024, 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. The Supreme Court judgement had directed SBI to submit details of the bond to the Election Commission (EC) by March 6. The EC was to publish the list of beneficiaries by March 13.

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.