Electoral bonds: The Supreme Court declared the electoral bond scheme “unconstitutional” and that it infringed on the right to information of the people last month in a historic decision.
On Tuesday night, the State Bank of India followed a rigorous Supreme Court ruling and delivered information about electoral bonds to the Election Commission of India. The poll panel, which has attested to receiving the data, will compile and make the data available by Friday at 5 p.m., per the directive.
However, the affidavit attesting to the bank’s compliance with the court order has yet to be filed by the bank’s chairman and managing director. NDTV has been informed that this is prepared and will be submitted on Wednesday.
The largest bank in the nation, State Bank of India, filed a request to extend the deadline for releasing this data until March 6th, but the Supreme Court rejected it on Monday. Chief Justice DY Chandrachud headed a bench that harshly criticized the bank for “willful disobedience” of orders and threatened to take it to contempt.
While we are currently not inclined to pursue contempt proceedings, we want to notify SBI that this court may consider taking action for willful disobedience if it fails to comply with the directions within the specified timelines outlined in this order,” the court had stated.
The bank contended that gathering, verifying, and releasing the data—which was kept secret on both ends and kept in two silos—would require a significant amount of time. It will take us a bit longer to comply. The bank stated We were informed that this is meant to be a secret and requested an extension until June 30.
That timeframe is well past the 2024 general election.
The Supreme Court responded by pointing out that the SBI’s Mumbai branch already possessed donor details; all the bank needed to do was open covers, collate details, and give information. We hadn’t instructed you to complete the matching task. We have requested a straightforward disclosure from you,” the Chief Justice scolded SBI.
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Last month, the Supreme Court issued a landmark decision declaring the electoral bond scheme “unconstitutional” and violating voters’ right to knowledge. The SBI was instructed to produce data by March 6, and the poll panel to make this information public by March 13.