Supreme Court has dismissed State Bank of India’s plea seeking an extension of the deadline to furnish details on electoral bonds and ordered the bank to furnish details by March 12 or face contempt action.
The top court had set the deadline as March 6 and the SBI moved the Court seeking extension till June 30 to comply with the Court’s directions.
“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,” said a five-judge Constitution bench of Chief Justice of India (CJI) DY Chandrachud with Justices Sanjiv Khanna, BR Gavai, JB Pardiwala and Manoj Misra.
“Though we are not exercising the contempt jurisdiction, but we place SBI put on notice that this court will proceed against it for wilful disobedience of court if it does not adhere to the directions issued by the court,” the bench said.
The Electoral Bonds scheme was struck down by the top court last month.
The bench noted that the Electoral Bonds scheme itself stipulated that the information furnished by the buyer of such bonds shall be treated as confidential by the authorised bank and shall be disclosed when called upon to do so or registration of an offence by a law enforcement agency, Bar and Bench reported.
“Thus, as per EB scheme itself SBI is mandated to disclose info when demanded,” the Court said.
