The Aryavarth Express
Agency (New Delhi):In a significant move, the Supreme Court of India, through its five-judge Constitution bench led by Chief Justice D Y Chandrachud, on Monday rejected the State Bank of India’s request for additional time and instructed it to deliver comprehensive details of electoral bonds to the Election Commission by the end of the business day on March 12. Furthermore, the Court directed the Election Commission to make these details public on its official website by 5 pm on March 15.
The bench, which includes Justices Sanjiv Khanna, B R Gavai, J B Pardiwala, and Manoj Misra, heard the plea of senior advocate Harish Salve, representing SBI. Salve argued for more time to gather and correlate the data, stored in separate systems within the bank’s branches. He mentioned that if the requirement to match donor and donee information were omitted, the bank could accomplish this task within three weeks.
However, the Supreme Court clarified that SBI was not required to match donor details with other data; it only needed to consolidate the information and provide it to the Election Commission. The Court also inquired about the actions taken by SBI to comply with the Court’s judgment dated February 15, expressing concern over the lack of progress reported by the bank.
In a groundbreaking decision on February 15, the same Constitution bench deemed the Centre’s electoral bonds scheme, which allowed for anonymous political contributions, as “unconstitutional.” It ruled that the Election Commission must disclose the identities of donors, the amounts donated, and the recipients by March 13. The SBI had requested an extension until June 30 for disclosing the details of each electoral bond redeemed by political parties before the scheme’s annulment. Additionally, the Court considered a separate plea requesting the initiation of contempt proceedings against SBI for its failure to adhere to the previous ruling.
