The Supreme Court on Monday slammed the State Bank of India (SBI) over non-compliance of its order on disclosing the details of Electoral Bonds by March 6 and dismissed it’s petition seeking time till June 30.
The apex court asked the SBI to provide electoral bond donor details to the Election Commission of India by March 12. The top court also directed the Election Commission to furnish the details on its official website by 5 pm on March 15.
In a landmark verdict earlier this month, the Supreme Court had ruled that Electoral Bonds, which gave anonymity to the corporates buying them and the political parties receiving the same, were violative of Article 19(1)(a) of the Constitution.
The constitution bench further held that the “deletion of the provision to Section 182(1) of the Companies Act permitting unlimited corporate contributions to political parties is arbitrary and violative of Article 14.”
The constitution bench of the Supreme Court had also asked the SBI to furnish details of the political parties that received Electoral Bonds since April 12, 2019, and all the particulars received and submit them to the Election Commission of India by March 6.
However, the bank didn’t comply with the court’s order and instead filed a plea before it seeking time till June 30.
In its plea, the bank has said that it needs more time to disclose details of Electoral Bonds encashed by the political parties.
The SBI said that there are certain practical difficulties and the decoding exercise is difficult to complete in the timeline fixed for it.
However, the Supreme Court said that the information is readily available since there are only 39 authorised branches where political parties have opened their current account for EB redemption.
“The submissions of the SBI sufficiently indicate that the information is readily available. The Application filed by the SBI seeking extension of time until 30 June, 2024 is dismissed,” the top court ruled.