Association for Democratic Reforms (ADR) and Common Cause filed a petition against the State Bank of India (SBI) for alleged non-compliance with the Supreme Court’s order to disclose details of the electoral bond.
Contempt Petition Against SBI
The two non-governmental organizations made a plea through lawyer Prashant Bhushan, requesting an urgent hearing before Chief Justice of India (CJI), DY Chandrachud, amidst the ongoing battle for transparency in political funding concerning the electoral bond scheme.
Bhushan mentioned that SBI has filed an application seeking an extension of time till June 30th to provide information that is likely to be listed on Monday.
He requested both the contempt petition and SBI’s application to be listed on the same day. CJI asked Bhushan to send an email request along with details of the application number.
Accusation Against SBI
The contempt petition filed in the Supreme Court accuses SBI of deliberate defiance. The two organizations contend that the issuing bank of electoral bonds, SBI, has failed to equip vital information related to the bond to the Election Commission of India (ECI) within the given time frame set by the court.
ADR and Common Causes’ Argument Against SBI
In February, the Supreme Court instructed SBI to submit details of the electoral bond purchased on April 12th, 2019. The deadline for submitting this information to ECI was March 6th. However, days before the deadline bank filed an application to the apex court seeking an extension till June 30th. SBI’s application contended that the decoding and compiling of data of such matter is time-consuming and complex.
The petition challenging SBI’s request called it ‘mala fide’ and an attempt to prevent transparency ahead of Lok Sabha polls.
It argued that SBI is capable of summoning the information and is resourceful to provide it on time. It added that an IT system designed for managing electoral bonds can easily generate reports based on unique numbers assigned to each bond.
‘SBI thwarts Transparency’
The petition raises many questions regarding SBI’s application seeking an extension of the deadline for submission, especially transparency.
Further, the petition added that voters have a fundamental right to know details about the total sum of money contributed to political parties through electoral bonds. It argues that the lack of transparency goes against the Constitution’s idea of participatory democracy enshrined in Article 19 (1)(a).
The Supreme Court’s directions to SBI for details of bond purchasers and contributions received by political parties through electoral bonds was to bring more transparency to political funding. This information was to be published on ECI’s website by March 13th, 2024.
If the Supreme Court accepts CBI’s application seeking an extension of time by 116 days, the vital information about political funding (details of the electoral bond) will remain hidden from the citizens till the Lok Sabha polls end.
Evidence against SBI’s False Claims
Many pieces of evidence prove that SBI had provided data on electoral bonds to the government in the shortest possible time, sometimes in merely 48 hours, which contradicts SBI’s recent claims in the filed application.
The documents provided by transparency activist Commodore Lokesh Batra to media ‘The Collective’, provide many instances of SBI delivering information at lightning speed, without any excuses.
The document suggests, that SBI was submitting the electoral bond data from across the country to Union Ministry within 48 hours after the deadline to en-cash bonds ended, which continued till 2020. It also shows in 2017, SBI could connect political parties and donors through electoral bonds very fast.
In 2018, a political party demanded that SBI’s New Delhi branch redeem specific bonds, then SBI formed a special team in Mumbai within hours and solved the problem.
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