SBI declines to release Electoral Bond details under RTI Act

The State Bank of India (SBI) refused to share the details of electoral bonds under the Right to Information (RTI) Act. They said this information is like personal data and is confidential. This decision comes even after the Supreme Court ordered them to share all details of electoral bonds bought since April 12, 2019, with the Election Commission (EC). The EC was supposed to put this information on its website by March 13.

An RTI activist named Commodore (retired) Lokesh Batra asked SBI for digital data on electoral bonds after the Supreme Court's order. But SBI said no, mentioning two sections of the RTI Act that talk about confidential records and keeping personal information private.

Batra also wanted to know how much SBI paid senior lawyer Harish Salve to represent them in the case against disclosing electoral bond records. But SBI didn't share this information either.

The Election Commission did put some data from SBI on its website on March 14. It showed who bought the bonds and which political parties got them. But on March 15, the Supreme Court wasn't happy because SBI didn't give all the details, especially the unique numbers of the electoral bonds. These numbers are important to link donors with the political parties getting the bonds. The court repeated its order for SBI to share all bond details, including who bought them, how much, and when.

SBI said that between April 1, 2019, and February 15, 2024, people bought 22,217 electoral bonds of different amounts. Political parties redeemed 22,030 of them. But people are still watching to see if SBI follows the Supreme Court's order to give complete information.