With the State Bank of India moving the Supreme Court seeking an extension of time till June 30 to disclose details of each electoral bond encashed by political parties, Opposition parties criticise the move, raising “suspicious apprehensions” and labeling it a “travesty of justice.”
In an application filed before the top court, State Bank of India (SBI) contended that 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.
While former Congress chief Rahul Gandhi slammed the Government over the issue, terming it a “last-ditch attempt” before the Lok Sabha polls to hide Modi's “real face”, CPI (M) general secretary Sitaram Yechury said the SBI's move to seek an extension on disclosing information related to electoral bonds raises “suspicious apprehensions”.
The plea submitted that due to stringent measures undertaken to ensure that the identity of the donors was kept anonymous, “decoding” the electoral bonds and matching donors to the donations made would 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.
“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,” the plea said.
In a landmark judgement that delivered a big blow to the Government, the Supreme Court on February 15 annulled the electoral bonds scheme for political funding, saying it violates the Constitutional right to freedom of speech and expression as well as the right to information.
In its verdict months ahead of the Lok Sabha polls, the apex court ordered the SBI to disclose to the Election Commission the names of the contributors to the six-year-old scheme.