SBI refuses to disclose electoral bonds' details under RTI Act

The State Bank of India SBI has refused to disclose under the RTI Act the details of the electoral bonds furnished to the Election Commission EC claiming that it is personal information held in a fiduciary capacity even though the records are in the public domain on the poll panels websiteHolding that the electoral bonds scheme was unconstitutional and manifestly arbitrary the Supreme Court directed the SBI on February 15 to furnish the complete details of the bonds purchased since April 12 2019 to the EC which would publish the information on its website by March 13On March 11 the court dismissed the SBIs petition seeking an extension of the deadline and ordered it to disclose the details of the electoral bonds to the EC by the close of business hours on March 12RTI activist Commodore retired Lokesh Batra 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 Supreme Courts orderThe bank denied the information citing two exemption clauses given under the Right to Information RTI Act section 81e that is related to records held in a fiduciary capacity and section 81j that allows withholding personal informationInformation 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 81e and j of the RTI Act the response furnished by the central public information officer and deputy general manager of the SBI said on WednesdayBatra had also sought the details of the fees paid by the SBI to senior advocate Harish Salve to defend its case against the disclosure of the electoral bonds records citing that the records are held in a fiduciary capacity and the information is personal in natureIt is bizzare that the SBI denied the information that is already on the ECs website Batra told PTIOn the question of Salves fee he said the bank has denied information that involves taxpayers moneyThe EC published the data furnished by the SBI on its website on March 14 with the details of the donors and political parties that redeemed the bondsOn March 15 the apex court pulled up the SBI 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 saying the bank was dutybound to reveal the informationA fivejudge bench headed by Chief Justice D Y Chandrachud said it had directed the disclosure of all the details of the bonds including the names of the purchasers amounts and dates of purchaseAll details have to be furnished by the SBI the CJI observed as the court admonished the bank for furnishing incomplete information a day after the EC put out the entire list of entities that purchased the bonds for making political donationsThe SBI had said a total of 22217 electoral bonds of varying denominations were purchased by the donors between April 1 2019 and February 15 this year of which 22030 were redeemed by political partiesThis story has been sourced from a third party syndicated feed agencies Midday accepts no responsibility or liability for its dependability trustworthiness reliability and data of the text Midday managementmiddaycom reserves the sole right to alter delete or remove without notice the content in its absolute discretion for any reason whatsoever