Supreme Court's big order on electoral bonds, SBI's petition rejected, asked to give data by March 12

Electoral Bonds Case: Supreme Court has reprimanded SBI in the electoral bonds case. Along with this, the court has also rejected the petition of State Bank of India (SBI). Let us tell you that SBI had filed a petition demanding extension of time till June 30 to submit the details of electoral bonds to the Election Commission of India. The Supreme Court has slammed SBI and asked it to disclose the details of electoral bonds by the end of working hours on March 12.

What happened during the hearing?

In fact, senior advocate Harish Salve, appearing for State Bank of India (SBI), told the Supreme Court that the bank needs additional time to submit the details of the electoral bonds to the Election Commission of India. Salve said the only problem with SBI is that it is trying to subvert the entire process. The SOP ensured that there was no name of the buyer in our core banking system and bond number. We were told it should be kept secret. The Supreme Court told SBI that in its decision it has not asked the bank to do the matching exercise, we have directed to make clear disclosure. Therefore asking for time saying that a matching exercise has to be done is not appropriate, we have not instructed you to do so. The court has clearly said that the details of the electoral bonds should be disclosed by the end of working hours on March 12.

The court had canceled the plan

The Supreme Court, in a landmark judgment on February 15, had struck down the electoral bond scheme, terming it "unconstitutional" and mandated the Election Commission to disclose donors, amounts given as donations and recipients by March 13. Was ordered to do. Ordering the immediate closure of the scheme, the Court had directed SBI, the authorized bank under the scheme, to submit details of electoral bonds purchased from April 12, 2019, to the Election Commission by March 6. Also, the Commission was asked to publish this information on its website by March 13. On March 4, SBI had moved the apex court seeking extension of time till June 30 to disclose details of electoral bonds encashed by political parties.

SBI argued

In its application, SBI has argued that it will take time to complete the process. It has been said in the application that 'decoding' the electoral bonds and matching the donations with the donors will be a complex process. It has been argued in the application, “Data related to issuance of bonds and data related to conversion of bonds into cash are in two different places. This was done to protect the confidentiality of the donors.'' The petition states, ''The details of the donors are kept in sealed envelopes in the designated branches (of the bank) and these sealed envelopes are kept till the filing of the application. These have been deposited in the main branch of the bank, which is in Mumbai.