Electoral bonds case: Plea in SC seeks contempt action against SBI

New Delhi, March 7 (IANS) A contempt petition has been filed against SBI for wilful disobedience of the Supreme Court order mandating the leading public sector bank to disclose the details of encashed Electoral Bonds to the Election Commission by March 6.

The contempt plea moved by the petitioner Association for Democratic Reforms (ADR) said the SBI application seeking extension of time, until June 30, is mala fide and demonstrates a wilful and deliberate disobedience and defiance of the judgement passed by the Constitution Bench.

In its application filed two days before the expiry of the deadline set out by the apex court, the SBI said that "decoding" of the Electoral Bonds and the matching of the donor to the donations is a complex and time-consuming exercise and the timeline of three weeks would not be sufficient for the entire exercise to be completed.

On Thursday, advocate Prashant Bhushan, appearing for the petitioner Association for Democratic Reforms, requested a bench headed by CJI D.Y. Chandrachud to list the contempt plea along with the SBI application seeking extension of time, which is tentatively coming up for hearing on March 11.

At this, CJI Chandrachud said: “The moment formalities are done, ask your junior to send an email to the registry. I will pass orders on the email.”

On February 15, a 5-judge Constitution Bench struck down the Electoral Bonds Scheme, 2018 as unconstitutional and ordered the SBI to forthwith stop their issuance.

It had asked the SBI to submit details (like date of purchase, the name of the purchaser and the denomination) of the Electoral Bonds purchased since April 2019 to the Election Commission by March 6 for publication on the official website of the poll body.

"SBI must disclose details of each Electoral Bond encashed by political parties which shall include the date of encashment and the denomination of the Electoral Bond. SBI shall submit the above information to the ECI within three weeks from the date of this judgment, that is, by March 6, 2024," it had said.