The State Bank of India (SBI) has petitioned the Supreme Court, requesting an extension until June 30, 2024, to reveal information regarding electoral bonds cashed by political parties. The current deadline for this disclosure is slated for March 6.
During the verdict delivery, the Supreme Court directed the SBI to unveil information regarding donations made through electoral bonds and the names of political parties that received these contributions to the Election Commission by March 6. Additionally, the Supreme Court instructed the Election Commission to make these particulars public on its website by March 13, 2024.
The bank emphasized the necessity of deciphering details from 22,217 electoral bonds (EBs), which entails decoding, compiling, and cross-referencing 44,434 information sets (twice the number of EBs issued). This complexity arises because the information pertaining to buyers and recipients of bonds is stored in two separate information silos.
On February 15, a five-judge bench struck down the Centre’s 2018 EB scheme of political funding, declaring it to be unconstitutional because it completely anonymised contributions made to political parties and added that restricting black money or illegal election financing some of the articulated objectives of the scheme — did not justify violating voters’ right to information in a disproportionate manner, Hindustan Times reported.
Moreover, the requested deadline of June 30, 2024, falls after the Lok Sabha elections. While the final dates for the elections have not yet been announced, SBI's proposed extension would ostensibly align with the conclusion of the electoral process.