The State Bank of India (SBI) on Monday moved the Supreme Court seeking extention of its deadline to submit details of Electoral Bonds to the Elections Commission till June 30. In its plea, the bank said that it needs more time to disclose details of Electoral Bonds encashed by the political parties.
The SBI said that there are certain practical difficulties and the decoding exercise is difficult to complete in the timeline fixed for it.
Earlier on March 15, the Supreme Court had struck down the Electoral Bond scheme – for the funding of the political parties – and ruled the scheme and the amendments to the Representation of People Act, the Income Tax Act, the Companies Act and 2017 Finance Act to facilitate the scheme were “unconstitutional and arbitrary”.
The top court ruled that Electoral Bonds, which gave anonymity to the corporates buying them and the political parties receiving the same, were violative of Article 19(1)(a) of the Constitution.
The constitution bench further held that the “deletion of the provision to Section 182(1) of the Companies Act permitting unlimited corporate contributions to political parties is arbitrary and violative of Article 14.”
In the landmark judgment, constitution bench of the Supreme Court had also asked the SBI to furnish details of the political parties that received Electoral Bonds since April 12, 2019, and all the particulars received and submit them to the Election Commission of India by March 6.
The information to be furnished by the SBI to ECI will also include the details of political parties which have received contributions through Electoral Bonds since April 12, 2019 till date. The court further directed that “SBI must disclose details of each Electoral Bond encashed by political parties which shall include the date of encashment and the denomination of the Electoral Bond.”