Electoral bonds: The Supreme Court also ordered the Election Commission to put the information released by SBI on its website by 5 pm on March 15.
New Delhi: The Supreme Court on Monday rejected the State Bank of India’s (SBI) plea seeking more time to furnish the details of electoral bonds to the Election Commission and ordered the country’s biggest bank to submit the same by the business hours of March 12, Tuesday. The apex court also ordered the poll panel to put the information on its website by 5 pm, March 15.
The court has warned the SBI chairman and managing director that they will face contempt proceedings if its order is not complied with within the timeline.
In a landmark verdict delivered on February 15, a five-judge Constitution bench scrapped the Centre’s electoral bonds scheme that allowed anonymous political funding, calling it “unconstitutional”.
The Supreme Court had ordered the SBI to disclose details on donors, the amount donated by them and the recipients, by March 13.
The SBI last week requested the court to extend the deadline for the disclosure of the details of the bond to June 30.
Today, a bench comprising CJI DY Chandrachud and justices Sanjiv Khanna, B R Gavai, J B Pardiwala and Manoj Misra, pulled up the bank, saying what was it doing over the last 26 days.
“In the last 26 days, what steps have you taken? Your application is silent on that,” the bench said.
The SBI has to just open the sealed cover, collate the details and give the information to the Election Commission, the bench added.
Senior advocate Harish Salve, appearing for the SBI, argued in the court that the bank needed more time to collate the details and match them as the information was kept in two different silos in its branches.
He further said the SBI would need at least three weeks to complete the exercise.
In response, the court said it only asked SBI to do a plain disclosure.
After SBI sought an extension of the deadline earlier this month, Congress chief Mallikarjun Kharge had said the BJP government was using the bank as a shield for its “dubious dealings”.
“The Modi government is using the largest bank of our country as a shield to hide its dubious dealings through Electoral Bonds… the BJP wants it to be done after the Lok Sabha elections. The tenure of this Lok Sabha will end on 16th June and SBI wants to share the data by 30th June,” Kharge had said.
This article is originally published on Hindustantimes.News!