‘Denied information involving taxpayers' money....’: RTI activist as SBI refuses to reveal Electoral

The State Bank of India (SBI) has refused to disclose the details of the electoral bonds it furnished before the Election Commission citing the Right to Information Act, news agency PTI reported on Wednesday. 

The state-run lender said the information is personal and is held in a fiduciary capacity even though the records are available in the public domain on the Election Commission's website.

Information sought by you is containing details of purchasers and political parties and hence, cannot be disclosed as it is held in fiduciary capacity disclosure of which is exempted under sections 8(1)(e) and (j) of the RTI Act," news agency PTI quoted SBI response to the RTI activist.

It is important to note on February 15, holding that the electoral bonds scheme "unconstitutional and manifestly arbitrary", the Supreme Court directed the state lender to furnish the complete details of the bonds purchased since April 12, 2019 to the election commission. The court further directed the election panel to publish the electoral bonds information on its website by March 13.

On March 11, when the SBI sought an extension of the deadline, the apex court dismissed the plea and ordered the state-run lender to disclose the details of the electoral bonds to the election panel by the close of business hours on March 12.

The report said RTI activist Commodore (retired) Lokesh Batra had approached the SBI on March 13 seeking the complete data of the electoral bonds in the digital form, as provided to the EC after the apex court order.

Batra told PTI that it was “bizarre", he was denied the information that is already available on the official election commission website.

Besides, the electoral bonds data Batra also wanted information on the fees paid to senior advocate Harish Salve by the bank to defend itself in the Supreme Court. 

Batra told the news agency that the public sector lender also denied the information regarding Salve's fee citing “the involvement of taxpayer money."

On March 15, the top court pulled up the state-run bank for not furnishing the complete information by withholding the numbers unique to each electoral bond that would help match the donors with the recipient political parties. The apex court said the bank was "duty-bound" to reveal the information.

The SBI had said a total of 22,217 electoral bonds of varying denominations were purchased by the donors between April 1, 2019 and February 15 this year, of which 22,030 were redeemed by political parties.

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