SBI recently withheld information regarding electoral bonds

The State Bank of India (SBI) recently withheld information regarding electoral bonds presented to the Election Commission of India (ECI), citing the Right to Information (RTI) Act. The bank asserted that this data is confidential and maintained under a fiduciary obligation, despite its availability on the ECI’s website.

The Supreme Court deemed the electoral bonds’ political funding mechanism as “unconstitutional and overtly arbitrary.” Consequently, on February 15, it ordered SBI to provide the ECI with exhaustive details of the bonds purchased post-April 12, 2019. These details were to be made public on the ECI’s website by March 13.

Subsequently, on March 11, the Supreme Court rejected SBI’s request to postpone the deadline and commanded the bank to release the bond details to the ECI by the end of the working day on March 12. According to a PTI report, SBI’s response indicated that the requested information includes specifics of the bond buyers and the political parties involved, which are not disclosable due to their fiduciary nature, as protected under sections 8(1)(e) and (j) of the RTI Act.

SBI
Image: Firstpost

Section 8(1)(e) pertains to information held in trust, and section 8(1)(j) concerns the privacy of personal data. This was in response to an RTI inquiry from Commodore (retired) Lokesh Batra, who demanded the full electoral bonds data in a digital format, as provided to the electoral commission following the Supreme Court’s ruling.

Batra expressed to PTI his astonishment at being denied access to information already posted on the ECI’s official website. The electoral commission disclosed the data submitted by SBI on March 14, detailing the donors and the political parties that redeemed the bonds.

Moreover, Batra requested details on the remuneration paid to senior advocate Harish Salve by SBI for representing the bank in the Supreme Court regarding the electoral bonds issue. He highlighted that the public sector bank refused to disclose information concerning the expenditure of public funds.

On March 15, the Supreme Court criticized SBI for not providing comprehensive information, specifically omitting the unique identifiers on each electoral bond that would correlate the donors with the recipient political parties. The bank was reminded of its duty to disclose this information.

Presiding over a five-judge bench, Chief Justice D Y Chandrachud stated that the court had instructed the disclosure of complete bond details, including the identities of the purchasers, the amounts, and the dates of acquisition.

SBI reported that between April 1, 2019, and February 15 of the current year, donors purchased a total of 22,217 electoral bonds in various denominations, out of which 22,030 were cashed in by political parties.

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