Big Setback for SBI, SC Orders Disclosure of Electoral Bond Details Tomorrow

In a significant setback to the State Bank of India (SBI), the Supreme Court on Monday dismissed its plea for an extension of time and directed it to disclose the details of electoral bonds to the Election Commission by the close of business hours on March 12, 2024.

A Constitution bench of Chief Justice D Y Chandrachud, along with Justices Sanjiv Khanna, B R Gavai, J B Pardiwala, and Manoj Misra also directed the EC to publish the shared details on its official website by 5 pm on March 15.

The bench put the SBI on notice that the apex court may consider taking action against it for “wilful disobedience” of its February 15 verdict if the bank fails to comply with the directives and timelines.

In a landmark ruling delivered on February 15, the Constitution bench had invalidated the Centre’s electoral bonds scheme, which permitted anonymous political funding, deeming it “unconstitutional.” The court ordered disclosure by the EC of donors, the donation amounts, and the recipients by March 13.

Ordering the scheme’s closure, the top court instructed the SBI, the authorized financial institution under the scheme, to provide details of electoral bonds purchased since April 12, 2019, by March 6 to the Election Commission.

During Monday’s proceedings, the bench heard the bank’s plea seeking an extension of time until June 30 to furnish the details.

The bench also heard separate petitions seeking contempt action against the SBI for alleged willful disobedience of the apex court’s February 15 directives.

The bench noted that the SBI’s submissions in the plea indicated that the information directed by the court was readily available.

“In view of the above discussion, the miscellaneous application filed by SBI seeking an extension of time for the disclosure of details of the purchase and redemption of electoral bonds until June 30, 2024, is dismissed,” it said.

“SBI is directed to disclose the details by the close of business hours of March 12,” the bench added, directing the EC to compile and publish the information on its official website by 5 pm on March 15, 2024.

The bench mandated the filing of an affidavit by the chairman and managing director of SBI regarding compliance with the court’s directions.

Senior advocate Harish Salve, representing the SBI, stated during the hearing that more time was needed for collating and matching the information stored in different branches of the bank.

The bench clarified that it had not instructed the bank to match the details of donors and recipients with other information and urged the SBI to make a plain disclosure as per the court’s judgment.

Justice Chandrachud highlighted that the SBI had ceased the issuance of electoral bonds as per the court’s previous directive.

Justice Khanna noted that the bank mentioned in its plea that all purchaser details were maintained in a sealed cover.

The SBI’s application contended that retrieving information from different silos and matching them would be time-consuming due to stringent measures to keep donor identities anonymous.

“It submitted that the data related to the issuance of the bond and the data related to the redemption of the bond was kept recorded in two different silos. No central database was maintained,” the application stated.

“It is submitted that donor details were kept in a sealed cover at the designated branches and all such sealed covers were deposited in the main branch of the applicant bank, which is located in Mumbai,” it added.