In a major setback to the State Bank of India, the Supreme Court on Monday trashed its plea seeking an extension of time and ordered it to disclose the details of electoral bonds to the Election Commission by close of business hours on March 12.
A five-judge Constitution bench headed by Chief Justice D Y Chandrachud also directed the EC to publish the details shared by the bank on its official website by 5 pm on March 15.
The bench, also comprising Justices Sanjiv Khanna, B R Gavai, J B Pardiwala, and Manoj Misra, put the SBI on notice that the apex court may be inclined to proceed against it for “wilful disobedience” of its February 15 verdict if the bank failed to comply with its directions and timelines.
In a landmark verdict delivered on February 15, a five-judge Constitution bench had scrapped the Centre’s electoral bonds scheme that allowed anonymous political funding, calling it “unconstitutional” and ordered disclosure by the EC of donors, the amount donated by them and the recipients by March 13.
Ordering the closure of the scheme, the top court directed the SBI, the authorised financial institution under the scheme, to submit by March 6 the details of the electoral bonds purchased since April 12, 2019, till date to the Election Commission.
On Monday, the bench was hearing the bank’s application seeking an extension of time till June 30 to furnish the details. The bench was also hearing separate pleas seeking the initiation of contempt action against the SBI for alleged willful disobedience of the apex court’s February 15 directives.
It observed that SBI’s submissions in the application sufficiently indicated that the information which was directed to be disclosed by the court was readily available. “In view of the above discussion, the miscellaneous application filed by SBI seeking an extension of time for the disclosure of details of the purchase and redemption of electoral bonds until June 30, 2024, is dismissed,” it said.
“SBI is directed to disclose the details by the close of business hours of March 12,” the bench said, adding, “As regards the ECI, we direct that ECI shall compile the information and publish the details on its official website no later by 5 pm on March 15, 2024”.
