Updated 11 March 2024 at 17:00 IST
New Delhi: In a major jolt to the State Bank of India, the Supreme Court on Monday dismissed 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 DY 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, BR 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.
For the unversed, the bench was today hearing the bank's application seeking an extension of time till June 30 to furnish the details. Besides, it 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. During the hearing, the bench took note of the submissions of senior advocate Harish Salve, appearing for the SBI, that more time was needed for collating the details and matching them as the information was kept in two different silos with its branches. He further said if the matching exercise was to be done away with, the SBI could complete the exercise within three weeks.
In its application, the SBI had contended that the retrieval of information from "each silo" and the procedure of matching the information of one silo to that of the other would be a time-consuming exercise. The application said due to stringent measures undertaken to ensure that the identity of the donors was kept anonymous, "decoding" the electoral bonds and matching the donors to the donations would be a complex process.
"It submitted that the data related to the issuance of the bond and the data related to the redemption of the bond was kept recorded in two different silos. No central database was maintained. It is submitted that donor details were kept in a sealed cover at the designated branches and all such sealed covers were deposited in the main branch of the applicant bank, which is located in Mumbai," it added.
Published 11 March 2024 at 17:00 IST