SC rejects SBI's plea for time extension in electoral bonds case, directs it to furnish details by March 12

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.

New Delhi: The Supreme Court on Monday told the SBI to furnish details of purchasers of electoral bonds and names of political parties that have encashed those instruments by March 12 to the Election Commission, rejecting its plea for extension of time until June 30 for the purpose.

A five-judge bench led by Chief Justice of India D Y Chandrachud said there was no need to do matching exercise, which the SBI claimed was a time-consuming exercise as information regarding the same has been kept in two silos.

The court told the SBI represented by senior advocate Harish Salve that it has to comply with the February 15, 2024 judgment, which declared the Electoral Bonds scheme, introduced in 2018 for donation to political parties, as unconstitutional. The SBI was the designated bank that issued the Electoral Bonds.

The top court directed the Election Commission to publish the information provided by the SBI on its website by 5 PM on March 15.

During the hearing, the court pulled up the SBI for not disclosing the extent of exercise undertaken by it since the pronouncement of judgment on February 15, as the bank was to provide details by March 6.

"SBI should have disclosed the amount of work ...there should be a degree of condour from the SBI what extent you have worked," the bench told Salve.

The counsel said it would cause havoc if wrong information on name of purchasers and redemption by the political parties were made available.

The court disposed of contempt applications filed by NGO Association for Democratic Reforms and CPI (M), saying it would initiate such proceedings if directions were not complied with by close of business hours on Tuesday.

It also directed the SBI's chairman and managing director to file an affidavit complying with its directions.

"Electoral bonds scheme stipulated that info furnished by buyer of bond shall b e treated as confidential, and shall be disclosed only by orders of a court, law enforcement agencies," the bench said.

The bank, which sold the electoral bonds, however, had cited certain practical difficulties with the decoding exercise and the timeline fixed for it by the top court.

In an application, it said between April 12, 2019, to the date of the judgement i.e. February 15, 2024, 22,217 electoral bonds were used for making donations to various political parties.

Redeemed bonds were deposited to Mumbai main branch by the authorised branches at the end of each phase in sealed envelopes. Coupled with the fact that two different information silos existed, this would mean that a total of 44,434 information sets would have to be decoded, compiled and compared, it said.