The State Bank of India (SBI) has not provided the Supreme Court-mandated information on electoral bonds encashed by political parties as of March 6, missing the deadline set by the apex court, according to a report by PTI.
The Supreme Court had previously ordered the SBI to cease issuing electoral bonds immediately after its judgement in January 2024. Additionally, the court directed the bank to submit details regarding the already-issued bonds by March 6, 2024, to the Election Commission (EC). The bench also instructed the Election Commission to publish the information provided by the SBI on its official website by March 13, 2024.
The SBI, however, had submitted a plea on March 4 requesting an extension until June 30 to disclose the requested information. This request has yet to be scheduled for a hearing by the Supreme Court.
SBI cited the time-consuming nature of retrieving and matching information from various sources as the reason for seeking an extension. The bank further stated that while a total of 22,217 electoral bonds were issued between April 12, 2019, and February 15, 2024, details such as "purchaser/donor name, date of issue, place of issue (branch), denomination of bond, bond number" are not centrally maintained.
Currently, only the total amount received through electoral bonds is revealed to the Election Commission through audited account statements.
Following the deadline's end, the non-governmental organization, the Association for Democratic Reforms, filed a contempt petition regarding SBI's missed the deadline before the Supreme Court on March 7, 2024 .