Electoral Bonds Case Live Updates : Supreme Court Hearing Of SBI's Time Extension Plea, Contempt Petitions Against SBI Chairman

SC : That is one set of documents (electoral bond application form, KYC documents and pay in slip) can be only be used to purchase one electoral bond. Contributors who have an SBI account as well as those who don't have to submit the EB application, KYC docs and proof of payment through NEFT/Cheque/DD.

SC : FAQs on EBs published by the SBI states KYC documents must be submitted by the purchaser each time the bond is purchased irrespective of whether the purchaser has a KYC verified SBI account.

SC : The operative directions of this Court directed the SBI to disclose the transactions as set out in direction B and direction C. SBI submits in its application itself that the donor details and redemption details are available albeit in separate silos. In other words, the direction issued by this court require SBI to disclose information which is already available with it.

SC : The crux of the SBI's submission is that the matching of information to ascertain who contributed to which political party is a time consuming process since the information is maintained in two separate silos.

SC : (SBI submission recorded) Thus the details of the purchasers of the bond are not available centrally; (d)donor details and recipient details are available in separate silos; (e) details of the purchasers were kept in a sealed cover, which were deposited in the main branch of SBI Mumbai. The information of redemption of electoral bonds were stored in a sealed cover and were sent to SBI Mumbai branch. Matching of the information in the two silos is time-consuming process. Matching of the information on the purchase and redemption of bonds would be time consuming since donor information and redemption information is maintained in two distinct silos independent of each other. There is a large number of data sets to decipher. A total of 22,217 bonds were purchased between the period. This would add up to 44, 434 data sets since there are two silos of information.

SC :What has to be analysed is whether SBI is justified in seeking an extension of time. SBI seeks an extension of time on the ground that the process of "decoding the electoral bonds and matching the donors to donations" is a complex and time consuming exercise.

To substantiate, SBI has averred that; (a) information is not available in a digital format; (b) Clause 7.1.2 of SOP stipulates that "no details of bond purchaser including KYC and other details will be entered in the core banking system".

SC : Thus in terms of the provisions of the electoral bonds scheme itself SBI is mandated to disclose information when mandated by a Court.

SC : While evaluating the submissions made by the SC, a reference to some of the key aspects of the scheme would be in order. Clause 7 of the EB scheme stipulates that the information furnished by a buyer of the EB shall be treated as confidential and shall be disclosed only when called upon to do so by a competent court or by a registration of offence by a law enforcement agency.

SC : It is submitted that the difficulty of SBI arose since it construed the direction of this Court as to do a matching exercise of the donor details and the details of the bonds encashed by the political parties.

SC : Mr.Salve submitted that the information which was received by the SBI was maintained in two separate silos and were maintained with utmost secrecy so as to fulfill the purpose of the electoral bonds scheme. He submitted that if the disclosure is to be made of the information required to be submitted by the SBI to ECI in separate silos which are referred to in B and C of the operative directions, there would be no difficulty in SBI doing so, which has been indicated that would be completed within 3 weeks.