Supreme Court asks SBI to share details of the electoral bonds scheme with the ECI by tomorrow, March 12 or will initiate contempt proceedings against the bank

Today, the Supreme Court (SC) of India was hearing an application filed by the State Bank of India (SBI) seeking an extension to disclose details of the electoral bonds scheme till June 30, 2024. The Constitution bench consisting of Chief Justice of India DY Chandrachud, Justice Sanjiv Khanna, Justice Manoj Misra, Justice JB Pardiwala, and Justice BR Gavai dismissed the application and asked government-run bank (SBI) to share details with the Election Commission of India by tomorrow (March 12, 2024). It also directed the poll body to publish the details of the electoral bonds scheme on its website by 5 pm on March 15, 2024 (Friday). Along with this, the SC warned that if the bank fails to provide the information by tomorrow then it will initiate contempt proceedings against the bank. Earlier on 15 February, the SC in its landmark judgment scrapped the electoral bonds scheme and directed the ECI to make the details of donations public by March 13. 

During the court proceedings, Senior Advocate Harish Salve who appeared for the SBI contended that “We need a little more time to comply with the order. We are trying to collate the info and we are having to reverse the entire process. We as a bank were told that this is supposed to be a secret.” Further, CJI noted that the donor details were kept in a sealed cover in the Mumbai branch of the bank. Justice Khanna added, “You have to just open the sealed cover, collate the details and give the information.” Mr. Salve further said, “I have full details on who purchased the bond and I have full details from where the money came from and which political party tendered how much. I have to also now put the names of purchasers. The names have to be collated, and crosschecked with the bond numbers.” While directing the CJI to comply with the judgment, he said, “It is submitted that matching information from one silo to another is a time-consuming process. We have not asked you to do the matching exercise. So to seek time saying that a matching exercise is to be done is not warranted, we have not directed you to do that.” 

After noting that the bank had not submitted the information, the bench asked, what they were doing in the past 26 days since the verdict. The ADR presented by Advocate Prashant Bhushan said that he agrees with the court’s decision. He said, “The court has dismissed the application of State Bank of India, pointing out that the data that the court had asked them to give is already available with the bank, according to their own affidavit. They have to just admit the details of the donors, on one hand, and the details of the parties that redeemed the bonds, on the other. State Bank of India was saying we have to do cross-matching etc. The court has said you don’t need to do cross-matching, just give these details to the Election Commission and you have to give it by tomorrow.”