SBI asks for more time from SC to reveal electoral bond details saying the process is time-consuming

The State Bank of India has filed an application in the Supreme Court asking for an extension of the deadline till June 30 for disclosing details of electoral bonds encashed by political parties citing that the lengthy process could take time.

On February 15, the Supreme Court in an unprecedented judgement, had annulled the electoral bonds scheme for political funding.

The application by the country's biggest lender, SBI, 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’s plea mentions that owing to the stringent measures of identity protection of those who made the donations to the political parties, decoding the electoral bonds and matching donors with the donations is likely to be a complex process.

"It submitted that the data related to the issuance of the bond and the data related to the redemption of the bond was kept recorded in two different silos. No central database was maintained. This was done to ensure that donors' anonymity would be protected," the bank said.

According to the bank, the donors' details were kept sealed at some branches which were later deposited in the main branch of the applicant bank, located in Mumbai.

The electoral bonds scheme was annulled by the apex court saying it violates the Constitutional right to freedom of speech and expression as well as the right to information. 

Ahead of the 2024 Lok Sabha polls, the apex court ordered SBI to disclose the names of the contributors to the six-year-old scheme.

The judgement was passed by a five-judge Constitution bench headed by Chief Justice D Y Chandrachud who directed the SBI to disclose details of each electoral bond encashed by political parties. 

The court directed the bank to submit the details by March 6 to the Election Commission which must include the date of encashment and the value of the bonds and be submitted to the poll panel.