New Delhi: A spokesperson for the Election Commission has said it has “no information or comments to offer” on whether the State Bank of India (SBI) has adhered to the Supreme Court’s March 6 deadline for giving it information regarding electoral bonds purchased and encashed since 2019.There is no word on if the Election Commission has approached the SBI for information. The Election Commission, the finance ministry and the law ministry have been quiet about the Supreme Court order declaring electoral bonds to be “unconstitutional”.The SBI on Monday (March 5) had moved the apex court seeking time till June 30 to disclose details of all electoral bonds purchased or of those encashed by political parties, earning ire and disbelief about India’s largest public sector bank not having information about crores of rupees processed by it going into political parties.The latest to sharply criticise the SBI is the bank employees’ trade union, Bank Employees Federation of India (BEFI), which said the state bank should adhere to the deadline set by the Supreme Court.The BEFI consists of employees of commercial banks, the Reserve Bank of India, NABARD, regional rural banks and co-operative banks. The union said that public sector banks and their personnel are being utilised for the “narrow political interest of the ruling forces”.It issued a scathing response regarding the reasons the SBI gave while asking for an extension from the Supreme Court. “The reason attributed by [India’s] largest bank, [the] SBI … that some of the data are stored in physical form kept in sealed covers surprised many in the digital era, especially in [the] banking sector, when most of the information are available with [the] click of a mouse,” the union said in its statement issued from Kolkata and signed by its secretary S. Hari Rao.It also said, “of late, it is observed that public sector banks and its personnel are utilised for [the] narrow political interest of the ruling forces, like in the cases of observance of Partition Horrors Remembrance Day, Viksit Bharat Sankalp Yatra etc.”“We express our strong opposition to such activities when the need of the hour is more recruitment in the banking industry and putting a halt to looting of public money through various means.”Terming the Supreme Court’s verdict on electoral bonds a ‘landmark’ judgment, the union said, “The country observed that [the] SBI after 17 days since the judgement, moved an appeal to Supreme Court on March 4, 2024, just two days before the deadline March 6, 2024, seeking time up to June 30, 2024, to comply with the direction of the court by which time the ensuing general elections will be over.”Former Supreme Court judge Justice Deepak Gupta, who was part of a bench in 2019 that ordered the SBI to keep records of electoral bonds, told The Wire earlier this week he did not believe the reason the SBI gave while asking for extra time.“Once the Court had directed that you keep this information it was their bounden duty to keep it in such a manner that when a Court asks them to disclose it they should disclose it as early as possible. Not that they take months to disclose it,” he said.The BEFI’s statement is reproduced below:§6 March 2024Press Statement issued by General Secretary, B.E.F.I. at Kolkata on SBI seeking time to disclose details of electoral bondsThe honourable Supreme Court of India, in its landmark unanimous judgement on 15th February 2024 declared the electoral bonds scheme, which provided blanket anonymity to political donors, as unconstitutional and manifestly arbitrary. It also struck down the legal amendments allowing rich corporations to make unlimited political donations for favours.The Supreme Court directed State Bank of India, sole banker to handle electoral bond through only 29 designated branches, to submit full details of contributions and encashment since April 2019 to Election Commission of India within three weeks before 6th March 2024 and ECI to publish the details submitted by SBI in its website before 13th March 2024.The country observed that SBI after 17 days since the judgement, moved an appeal to Supreme Court on 4th March 2024, just two days before the deadline 6th March 2024, seeking time upto 30th June 2024 to comply with the direction of the court by which time the ensuing General Elections will be over. The reason attributed by the India’s largest Bank SBI is that some of the data are stored in physical form kept in sealed covers surprised many in the digital era especially in banking sector when most of the information are available with click of a mouse.Of late, it is observed that public sector banks and its personnel are utilised for narrow political interest of the ruling forces, like in the cases of observance of Partition Horrors Remembrance Day, Viksit Bharat Sankalp Yatra etc. We express our strong opposition to such activities when need of the hour is more recruitment in the banking industry and put halt to looting of public money through various means.Bank Employees Federation of India unequivocally opposes utilisation of banks for political purposes and demands that State Bank of India as a Public Sector Bank should disclose and submit all the details of electoral bonds to Election Commission before the stipulated deadline of 6th March 2024 as directed by the Supreme Court since delayed justice is denial of justice. The matter is pending before the apex court and we believe that the Supreme Court will take appropriate decision in this regard.Hari Rao S.Secretary
