After the Supreme Court's stringent directives, the State Bank of India (SBI) submitted detailed records on the purchase and sale of electoral bonds to the Election Commission on Tuesday evening. The Election Commission confirmed the receipt of the data.
Sources within the Election Commission suggest that SBI dispatched the electoral bonds sales data on Tuesday evening. This initial batch of data is raw and will require transformation before the March 15 deadline for it to be uploaded on the Commission's website - a challenge for the Commission's specialists.
A high-ranking official from the Election Commission mentioned that their teams have been working tirelessly and are strategically uploading the data in phases, with a plan to release all the information on the evening of March 15.
The Supreme Court rejected SBI’s petition for more time
In a hearing on Monday, the Supreme Court ordered the SBI to provide complete details by March 12, dismissing the bank's request for an extension. Headed by Chief Justice D.Y. Chandrachud, the bench criticized SBI and questioned their inaction for 26 days, despite orders issued on February 15. SBI responded by stating that decoding the anonymous election donation information would require extra time.
Electoral Bond Scheme was introduced by the government in 2018
It's noteworthy that the central government announced the Electoral Bond Scheme in 2017, which was legally implemented on January 29, 2018. The government claimed that the scheme was introduced to bring clean money into election financing and to enhance transparency. Electoral bonds of varying denominations can be purchased from 29 specified SBI branches and donated to a political party of one's choice.
