Electoral bonds: SC to hear SBI plea today

A five-judge constitution bench of Supreme Court is scheduled to hear on Monday an application submitted by State Bank of India (SBI) seeking an extension of time until June 30 to disclose details of each electoral bond en-cashed by political parties before scheme was annulled last month.

The bench, headed by Chief Justice D Y Chandrachud, will also address a separate plea which alleges contempt against SBI, claiming it ‘wilfully and deliberately’ disregarded apex court’s directive to submit details of contributions made to political parties through electoral bonds to Election Commission (EC) by March 6, 2024. In a groundbreaking verdict delivered on February 15, a five-judge constitution bench nullified the Centre’s electoral bonds scheme of anonymous political funding, deeming it “unconstitutional” and mandating disclosure by the Election Commission of the donors, the donated amounts, and the recipients by March 13.

Directing the immediate cessation of the scheme, the apex court ordered the SBI, the designated financial institution under the scheme, to furnish by March 6 the specifics of the electoral bonds purchased from April 12, 2019, onwards to the Election Commission, which was directed to publish the information on its official website by March 13.

On March 4, the SBI petitioned the apex court seeking an extension of time until June 30 to divulge the details of the electoral bonds encashed by political parties. In its application, the SBI argued that retrieving information from “each silo” and matching the data from one silo to another would be a time-consuming process.