SBI complies with SC order, sends all Electoral Bonds data to Election Commission

The State Bank of India (SBI) on Tuesday submitted to the Election Commission (EC) the details of the parities that had bought now-scrapped electoral bonds and those who got them, as it complied with the Supreme Court order to furnish information.

Sources told to ‘Legally Speaking’ that, SBI has complied with the orders of the apex court and submitted the details of the electoral bonds to the Election Commission.

The Top Court on March 11 ordered SBI to disclose the details of electoral bonds to the Election Commission by close of business hours on March 12.

As per the order, the Election Commission will have to publish the details shared by the bank on its official website by 5 pm on March 15.

The Supreme Court on Monday had dismissed SBI’s plea for an extension of time and directed it to disclose the details of electoral bonds to the Election Commission by the close of business hours on March 12.

A Constitution bench of Chief Justice D Y Chandrachud, along with Justices Sanjiv Khanna, B R Gavai, J B Pardiwala, and Manoj Misra had also directed the EC to publish the shared details on its official website by 5 pm on March 15.

The SBI’s application contended that retrieving information from different silos and matching them would be time-consuming due to stringent measures to keep donor identities anonymous.

“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,” the application stated.

“It is submitted that donor details were kept in a sealed cover at the designated branches and all such sealed covers were deposited in the main branch of the applicant bank, which is located in Mumbai,” it added.