New Delhi: SBI filed a petition in the Supreme Court on Monday asking that it should be given time till June 30 to give information to the Election Commission about electoral bonds purchased for donating to political parties.
Last month, a 5-judge bench of the Supreme Court had struck down the electoral bonds as unconstitutional and directed the State Bank of India, which was the only authorized bank to sell electoral bonds, to sell the bonds from April 12, 2019, till March 6, 2024. Provide information about electoral bonds purchased till 2018 to the Election Commission. The Supreme Court had declared the electoral bond scheme unconstitutional, terming it as a violation of the Right to Information and Article 19 (1) (a) by keeping the electoral bonds anonymous.
Describing this process as a very time-consuming task, SBI has sought time. This is also being linked to the elections, because the State Bank of India has asked for time till 30th June, and by then Lok Sabha elections would have been held in the country.
Electoral Bond: What did SBI say in its writ petition
On Monday, SBI said in its writ petition in the Supreme Court that it wants to completely comply with the court’s instructions. However, there are some practical difficulties with decoding the data and the time frame required for it. Strict measures have been followed to conceal the identity of those purchasing electoral bonds. Now matching the information about its donors and the amount of electoral bonds they have purchased is a complex process.
SBI said that the identity of electoral bond buyers is confidential, the bank has prepared a detailed procedure for the sale and encashment of bonds which is followed in the bank’s 29 authorized branches spread across the country.
SBI said that 22,217 electoral bonds were purchased to donate to political parties. The process of getting information from everywhere and matching information from one place to another will be a time-consuming process. The information is stored in different places. Some information like electoral bond number etc. is stored in digital form while other details like buyer name, KYC, etc. are stored in physical form. At the end of each phase, the encased electoral bonds were deposited in sealed envelopes by the authorized branches at the Mumbai main branch. Since there are two different sets of data, we have to decode, combine and compare 44,434 sets of data.
Electoral Bond: Opposition alleges attempt to hide corruption before elections
Rahul Gandhi, reacting to SBI’s petition in the Supreme Court seeking time till June 30, i.e. after the Lok Sabha elections, to give details of donors, posted on Has given. When the Supreme Court has said that it is the right of the countrymen to know the truth about electoral bonds, then why does SBI want this information not to be made public before the elections? Asking for time till 30th June for information that can be retrieved with one click shows that there is nothing black in the pulses, the entire pulses are black. Every independent organization of the country is trying to cover up their corruption by becoming ‘Modani family’. This is the ‘last attempt’ to hide Modi’s ‘real face’ before the elections.”
नरेंद्र मोदी ने ‘चंदे के धंधे’ को छिपाने के लिए पूरी ताकत झोंक दी है।
— Rahul Gandhi (@RahulGandhi) March 4, 2024
जब सुप्रीम कोर्ट ने कहा है कि इलेक्टोरल बॉण्ड का सच जानना देशवासियों का हक़ है, तब SBI क्यों चाहता है कि चुनाव से पहले यह जानकारी सार्वजनिक न हो पाए?
एक क्लिक पर निकाली जा सकने वाली जानकारी के लिए 30 जून तक…
Senior lawyer Prashant Bhushan in the Supreme Court said that As expected, Modi govt has filed an application thru State Bank seeking time till beyond elections to disclose name of donors thru #ElectoralBonds to political parties. The release of this info will reveal several bribe givers & Contracts/favours to them. So scared!
As expected, Modi govt has filed an application thru State Bank seeking time till beyond elections to disclose name of donors thru #ElectoralBonds to political parties. The release of this info will reveal several bribe givers & Contracts/favours to them. So scared! pic.twitter.com/q34nzFyY2q
— Prashant Bhushan (@pbhushan1) March 4, 2024
CPIM General Secretary Sitaram Yechury expressed disappointment over SBI’s plea and said that If this is the case then why is this plea by SBI to extend the date to compile data already available till after the elections?
Smacks of obvious suspicious motivation to defend legalized political corruption favoring the ruling party BJP.
If this is the case then why this plea by SBI to extend date to compile data already available till after elections?
— Sitaram Yechury (@SitaramYechury) March 4, 2024
Smacks of obvious suspicious motivation to defend legalised political corruption favouring the ruling party BJP.https://t.co/GHYFWHyKXx
