The Supreme Court strongly reprimanded State Bank of India (SBI) for not providing information related to electoral bonds i.e. election donations. Rejecting the petition seeking extension of time till June 30 for giving election donations and details of those who redeemed it, the bank was directed to submit complete information to the Election Commission by the end of office hours on March 12 i.e. 5 pm.
A five-member Constitution bench headed by Chief Justice DY Chandrachud also ordered the Election Commission to publish the details received from the bank on its website by 5 pm on March 15. The bench warned that if the bank does not follow the instructions and deadline, the court will consider it as a ‘willful violation’ of its February 15 decision and take action. Earlier, on February 15, the Supreme Court had struck down the Electoral Bond Scheme as unconstitutional and ordered the Election Commission to disclose the names of donors, parties receiving funds and the amount by March 13. On the decision of the Supreme Court, Congress President Mallikarjun Kharge said that soon the country will know who donated how much to which party through electoral bonds. CPI(M) leader Sitaram Yechury said, this is a big step towards transparency in election funding. This is an important step towards stopping the ‘legitimization of corruption’.
• After the rebuke of the Supreme Court State Bank of India shares on Monday Fell one percent.
26 days have passed since the order of February 15, you are the number 1 bank of the country, this much is expected: Chandrachud
Harish Salve (appearing online on behalf of the Bank): Before canceling the scheme, the Bank was told that the process would be kept secret,
Therefore some more time is needed. The whole process has to be reversed. We have information about who bought the bonds and how many bonds were redeemed by which party. While purchasing the bonds, the bank had kept separate records of both. So now they have to be matched. Then everyone will have to be presented together.
CJI: Mr. Salve, check your application. You are saying that the information about donors and political parties was sent in a sealed envelope to the main branch in Mumbai. That means there were two cents of information. You are saying that matching information from one silo to another is a time-consuming process. If you look at our order we have not asked you to match.
Justice Khanna: You just have to open the sealed envelope and give the details.
Salve: Working. This will take three months. CJI: Assistant General Manager of the bank has given an affidavit for amendment in the order of the Constitution Bench. This is a serious matter. Salve: The bank cannot make a mistake in this matter because the donors can file a case. Justice Gavai: Whatever you are doing, you are doing it under the instructions of the Supreme Court of the country. Where is the question of filing a case against you? CJI: Our order was dated 15th February. Today is 11th March. 26 days passed. What did you do in these days? It was expected from the bank that this work would have been done.
Salve: If there is no matching, we will give information in three weeks.
Justice Gavai: 3 weeks for what? Political parties have given information about the bonds redeemed. The names of the buyers are with the bank.
CJI: Now we will give orders directly. Bank’s petition seeking extension is rejected.