Electoral bonds details: 'SBI must transfer all details to EC on March 6,' says Sitaram Yechury

CPI(M) General Secretary Sitaram Yechury. also said not doing so would be a contempt of court.

New Delhi: SBI should transfer all details of the encashed electoral bonds to the Election Commission by March 6, the deadline set by the Supreme Court, CPI(M) General Secretary Sitaram Yechury said on Tuesday.

Yechury also said not doing so would be a contempt of court.

His comment comes a day after the State Bank of India (SBI) on Monday moved the Supreme Court, seeking an extension till June 30 to disclose details of each electoral bond encashed by political parties.

In its verdict last month, the top court directed SBI to furnish the details to the Election Commission of India by March 6.

"A day before the expiry of the SC (Supreme Court) deadline to declare details of all donors and recipients of EBs (electoral bonds), SBI seeks extension till after elections!" Yechury said in a post on X.

"As of now, the deadline remains and, if SBI does not comply, it would be contempt of court. SBI must transfer all details to ECI (Election Commission of India) by tomorrow (Wednesday)," he said.

In an application filed before the top court, SBI contended that retrieval of information from 'each silo' and the procedure of matching the information of one silo to that of the other would be a time-consuming exercise.

The plea submitted that due to stringent measures undertaken to ensure that the identity of the donors was kept anonymous, 'decoding' the electoral bonds and matching donors to the donations made would be a complex process.

In a landmark judgment that delivered a big blow to the government, the Supreme Court on February 15 annulled the electoral bonds scheme for political funding, saying it violated the constitutional right to freedom of speech and expression as well as the right to information.

A five-judge Constitution bench directed that SBI must disclose details of each electoral bond encashed by political parties. The information should include the date of encashment and the denomination of the bonds and be submitted to the poll panel by March 6.