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SBI electoral bonds data submitted to Election Commission a day after Supreme Court rebuke
The SBI submits electoral bonds data to the Election Commission a day after the Supreme Court's rap. The top court had earlier ordered disclosure of electoral bond details by March 12.
The State Bank of India (SBI) on March 12 submitted all data on electoral bonds to the Election Commission of India in compliance with the Supreme Court's order. The country's largest lender had earlier sought an extension of the deadline from the apex court, until June 30, to disclose the details of electoral bonds.
The SBI has issued electoral bonds worth ₹16,518 crore in 30 tranches since the inception of the scheme in 2018.
Chastising the SBI, the Supreme Court on Monday ordered the bank to disclose the details of the electoral bonds encashed by political parties to the Election Commission by the close of business hours on March 12.
In a landmark verdict, a five-judge bench of the Supreme Court of India had scrapped the controversial electoral bonds scheme, terming it ‘unconstitutional’.
Ordering the closure of the scheme, the top court had directed the SBI to submit by March 6 the details of the electoral bonds purchased since April 12, 2019, till date to the Election Commission.
Notably, the SBI is the only authorised financial institution under the Centre's electoral bonds scheme that allows anonymous political funding.
Further, the Supreme Court has also directed the Election Commission to publish the information shared by the bank on its official website by 5 pm on March 15.
The SBI had said the retrieval of information on electoral bonds from "each silo" and the procedure of matching the information of one silo to that of the other would be a time-consuming exercise.
Opposition leaders hailed the Supreme Court judgement and claimed that the Prime Minister Narendra Modi-led government's implementation of the Citizenship Amendment Act (CAA) on March 11 was an attempt to divert the country's attention from the electoral bond scheme.
SCBA seeks President Murmu's interference
Meanwhile, the Supreme Court Bar Association (SCBA) chief Adish C Aggarwala has asked President Droupadi Murmu to seek presidential reference of the apex court judgement in the electoral bonds scheme case.
Aggarwala, in his letter to President Murmu, said, “Revealing the names of corporates that had contributed to different political parties would render the corporates vulnerable for victimization.”
The bar body leader urged President Murmu to seek presidential reference in the electoral bonds case so that the entire proceedings could be reheard and complete justice could be done to “Parliament of India, political parties, corporates and the general public”.
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Business NewsNewsIndiaSBI electoral bonds data submitted to Election Commission a day after Supreme Court rebuke
First Published:12 Mar 2024, 06:37 PM IST
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