State Bank of India (SBI) has requested the Supreme Court to grant time until 30 June to disclose details of each electoral bond encashed by political parties. 

Last month, the apex court had, in a historic verdict, struck down the electoral bonds scheme and asked SBI to furnish the details to the Election Commission (EC) by 6 March. 

The state-run bank has, in an application filed before the top court, 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 details are stored separately, some of the details such as number of bonds, etc. are stored digitally while the other set of details such as name of purchaser, KYC etc., are stored physically. The purpose of not storing all details digitally was to ensure that it cannot be gathered easily to achieve the object of the scheme, the plea stated.

The SBI has, in its 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, PTI reported.

"It submitted that the data related to the issuance of the bond and the data related to the redemption of the bond was kept recorded in two different silos. No central database was maintained. This was done to ensure that donors' anonymity would be protected.

"It is submitted that donor details were kept in a sealed cover at the designated branches and all such sealed covers were deposited in the Main Branch of the Applicant bank, which is located in Mumbai," the plea said.

The SC had directed SBI to provide the details to the election commission on 15 February. SBI filed its application on 4 March. With the state-owned bank seeking time until 30 June to provide the detailed information on electoral bonds, Opposition parties have alleged that every effort was being made to ensure the data were not released in time for the general elections.

The details have to include the date of purchase of each bond, the name of the purchaser and the denomination purchased. 

Meanwhile, the Association for Democratic Reforms (ADR), chief petitioner in the electoral bonds case, said it was considering all legal options, including opposing the SBI plea in court.

Prof. Jagdeep Chhokar, founder-member and trustee of the ADR, termed the SBI move “not surprising but unfortunate”, the Hindu reported.

“…the data is obviously in digital format and collecting data from different States and locations and taking four months for that is impossible in this day and age,” he told The Hindu.

In a landmark judgment, the SC on 15 February annulled the electoral bonds scheme for political funding, saying it violates the Constitutional right to freedom of speech and expression as well as the right to information.