Pulling up the State Bank Of India (SBI) for not releasing information on Electoral Bonds scheme that was scrapped by the Supreme Court last month, the apex court on Monday rejected the bank's plea for more time to disclose the details and asked it to do so by Tuesday, March 12.
Dismissing the plea of the State Bank of India's seeking an extension of time, a Supreme Court bench headed by Chief Justice DY Chandrachud also directed the Election Commission of India (ECI) to publish the details shared by the bank on its official website by 5 pm on March 15.
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While advocate Harish Salve, appearing for the SBI, told the Supreme Court that the bank needs extra time to submit details of Electoral Bonds to the ECI, the top court said the bank has to just open sealed cover, collate details and give information to poll body and asked as to what steps have been taken in the last 26 days.
SC Hearing Of SBI's Plea On Electoral Bonds | SC's Top Quotes
"You have to just open the sealed cover, collate the details and give the information. ECI was asked to file details in a sealed envelope"barandbench.com quoted the Bench as saying.
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"Please tell what matching you have done in the last 26 days"Justice Sanjiv Khanna, part of the SC Bench, said.
"You accept that there is no difficulty in giving details of who purchased etc..so in 26 days at least 10,000 etc must have been collated"Justice Khanna said.
"There is a degree of candour expected from SBI as to this is the work which was expected and this has been done"the Supreme Court Bench said.
"We have directed a plain disclosure. So, to seek time saying that a matching exercise is to be done is not warranted, we have not directed you to do that. The SBI has to just open the sealed cover, collate the details and give the information to the Election Commission."the SC Bench said in its order.
"Submissions of SBI in application indicates that info sought is readily available. thus the application by SBI seeking extension of time until June 30 is dismissed. SBI is directed to disclose the details by the close of business hours of March 12, 2024"barandbench.com cited Supreme Court order.
"While we are not inclined to exercise contempt jurisdiction at this time, we place SBI on notice that this court may be inclined to proceed against it for wilful disobedience if it does not comply with directions by timelines indicated in this order"the Supreme Court said.
In a big verdict on February 15, a five-judge Constitution bench scrapped the Centre's electoral bonds scheme that allowed anonymous political funding, calling it "unconstitutional" and ordered disclosure by the Election Commission of donors, the amount donated by them and the recipients by March 13.
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The SBI had sought an extension till June 30 to disclose the details of each electoral bond encashed by political parties before the scheme was scrapped.
