The State Bank of India’s plea to the Supreme Court seeking extension of time till June 30 this year to disclose details of electoral bonds encashed by political parties instead of March 6 as ordered by the apex court is nothing but a sordid attempt by the Finance Ministry to save the ruling party from acute embarrassment before the Lok Sabha elections due in April/May this year.
SBI is the biggest public sector bank of the country and the bank takes pride in the best digitalization of its banking system. The Supreme Court in its order on February 15 this year asked the SBI to send all the details of the purchases of the bonds to the Election Commission by March 6 and to put all these in SBI website by March 13 this year. The electoral bonds scheme, 2017 was scrapped forthwith due to its violation of the constitutional norms including the right of information for an individual.
Clean 20 days were given by the Supreme Court to the SBI to send the details to the Election Commission by March 6 this year. Now just on the eve of that deadline, SBI has come out with the lame excuse that the Bank has some practical difficulties with the decoding exercise and the details are not maintained centrally. The Bank needs more time till June 30 this year.
Just imagine, India’s biggest bank is not in a position to furnish details of electoral bond purchases of 22,217 electoral bonds and for that instead of 20 days they need another four months till June 30 this year. In fact, the banking and digital experts are just laughing at this gala performance by the SBI management at the instance of their owner, the finance ministry of the Narendra Modi government.
What is so sacrosanct about June 30?. Because the Lok Sabha elections will be over by the third week of May this year and in all probability, the new government will start functioning in the month of June. If as per Supreme Court order the details are put on the website of SBI by March 13, the names of all the purchasers of electoral bonds will be known providing information about the quid pro quo of the donors with the ruling government. In fact what Rahul Gandhi has been telling in his campaign that the Narendra Modi government and the crony capitalists are in tie ups, will be proved if the details come out by March 13. This will have big impact on the Lok Sabha campaign giving the INDIA bloc issues for lambasting the BJP.
According to Supreme Court’s February 15 judgment, “At a primary level, political contributions give a seat at the table to contributors, i.e., it enhances access to legislators. This access also translates to influence over policymaking. There is also a legitimate possibility that financial contributions to a political party would lead to quid pro quo arrangement because of the close nexus between money and politics. The electoral bond scheme and the impugned provisions to the extent that they infringe upon the right to information of the voter by anonymising contributions through electoral bonds are violative of Article 19(1)(a).”
The court held that the restrictive means test of the doctrine of proportionality is not satisfied and that there are other means other than electoral bonds to achieve the purpose of curbing black money, even assuming it to be a legitimate objective. The infringement to the right to information is not justified, the Court held. Acknowledging the right of informational privacy extends to financial contributions which is a facet of political affiliation, Chief Justice Chandrachud revealed that a double proportionality standard was applied to balance the conflicting rights to information and to informational privacy. The bench held the amendments to the Income Tax Act, the Representation of Peoples Act and the Companies Act as unconstitutional.
The Modi government was most unhappy at the verdict of the Supreme Court given on February15 this year. The government was working on some way to avert the possibility of disclosure about bonds purchasers before the Lok Sabha elections. So the SBI has been used as a scapegoat on a plea which has undermined the status and credibility of the country’s largest bank. Left to themselves, the Bank officials could have completed the work as per Supreme Court order much before the March 6 deadline. But the SBI’s reputation has been sacrificed at the altar of the political interests of the BJP.
My humble submission to the CJI Dr. D Y Chandrachud is that the SBI plea at the instance of the Modi government is an attempt to act against the very purpose of your February 15 order. The ruling party is bent on devaluing the impact of the historic order of yours by trying to extend the deadline till June 30. The plea of SBI is unsustainable. The Supreme Court must reject the SBI plea outright in order to maintain the sanctity of its order. IF at all any extension is given, it should be for a week only not more than that. (IPA Service)
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