SBI’s role in the electoral bonds case is completely unlawful: Former Finance Secretary Subhash Garg

According to Garg, who spoke with the Indian Express, the bank was not supposed to keep track of the electoral bonds’ distinct alpha-numeric codes.

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The State Bank of India’s (SBI) activities in the electoral bonds case were deemed “completely unlawful and unexpected” by former finance secretary Subhash Garg. According to Garg, who spoke with the Indian Express, the bank was not supposed to keep track of the electoral bonds’ distinct alpha-numeric codes.

“Doing so, it [SBI] had violated the anonymity promised to donors under the Electoral Bond Scheme, 2018,” Garg said.

He stated that by noting the electoral bonds’ alphanumeric code, the SBI “had hit at the basic feature of the scheme that was brought in by the government in 2018 to enable anonymous political donations.”

Garg further said that the SBI’s initial affidavit in the electoral bonds matter was “ostensibly false”. He quoted the SBI as stating in its initial affidavit that it would take three months to match donor and party information because it was stored in physical form.

The only bank with authorization to sell and redeem electoral bonds was SBI.

“But subsequent events showed that they recorded the information in a digital form. Their first affidavit appears to be motivated by the desire to push the disclosure of the data beyond the Lok Sabha elections. Why did they file the ostensibly false affidavit,” inquired Garg.

The two sets of information covered electoral bonds bought and redeemed between April 2019 and January 2024. They included 386 pages of donor details and 552 pages of redemption details by political parties.

The bonds were first issued in March 2018 and were sold until the Supreme Court ruled on February 15 that they were void.

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