A five-judge Constitution bench of the Supreme Court on Monday dismissed the State Bank of India’s plea seeking extension till June 30 to furnish details regarding electoral bonds. The SC has asked SBI to provide details by March 12.
The SBI has been asked to disclose information till the ‘business hours’ of March 12, while the Election Commission of India (ECI) has been asked to upload it on its website by 5 pm, March 15.
The SBI has been asked to submit details of the bonds, including the name, date and denominations. Alongside, it will also reveal details of the bonds which were redeemed by the political parties, including the date of encashment and denominations.
As per the SC’s February 15 judgment, the SBI is not required to match these two critical details.
Harish Salve, appearing for the SBI, said that while SBI could simply comply with the February 15 judgment by disclosing available information, it needs more time to match the information of donor details with the political parties.
“What you are saying is that there are two different information silos and rematching them would require significant effort, ” Chief Justice of India DY Chandrachud said. “But if you see the directions we issued, we did not ask you do this matching exercise. We have simply directed plain disclosure,” he said.
The CJI asked the SBI what progress it made on matching in the last 26 days. “There should be a degree of candour from SBI. They should tell us the extent of work done already,” the CJI observed.
Salve said that in a hurry to give details, there might be some mismatches, the SBI might make mistakes. “That might create havoc, we might be sued,” Salve said.
The bench, also comprising Justices Sanjiv Khanna, B R Gavai, J B Pardiwala, and Manoj Misra, said that SBI being the “Number 1” bank in India, is expected to handle the task.
“The SC has directed for disclosure of KYC details, amount of bond. The SC has also directed for disclosure on donations received by political parties. If a bridge does not need to established between the two, we can disclose info in 3 weeks,” Salve told the SC during the hearing.
Contempt plea against SBI in Electoral Bonds
A petition plea was filed by NGOs Association for Democratic Reforms and Common Cause against the State Bank of India for not adhering to the SC’s order of providing details of those who purchased the electoral bonds.
The petitioner claimed that SBI ‘deliberately’ sought an extension at the last moment o ensure that details of donor and the amount of donations are not disclosed to the public before the upcoming Lok Sabha elections.
While the SC has dismissed the contempt petition, it put the SBI on notice.
“The SBI through its CMD shall file an affidavit on compliance with the SC’s directions. While we are not inclined to exercise the contempt jurisdiction at this time, we place SBI on notice that this Court may be inclined to proceed against it for willful disobedience if SBI does not comply with the directions by the timelines indicated in this order,” Chandrachud said.
Supreme Court on Electoral Bonds
The last time around, the apex court came down pretty heavily on the concept of electoral bonds in the current form, with the CJI-led five-judge panel striking it down as ‘unconstitutional’. The CJI opined that it is crucial to electoral democracy that the exercise of freedom to vote is not subject to undue influence.
Further, the SC said that expressing one’s political beliefs is guaranteed under Article 19(1)(a) of the Constitution, and forming political beliefs and opinion is the first stage of political expression.
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The court further held that the 2018 scheme was not fool-proof and that information about funds received by a political party is essential for voters to exercise their freedom to vote effectively.
In addition, it also asked the Centre-run SBI was to furnish details of all the electoral bonds which were purchased since April 12, 2019 till date to the ECI, which in turn was to publish the information on its official website by March 13.
However, the SBI moved SC, asking an extension till June 30 to make the details public, much to the dismay of Opposition leaders.
The SBI through its application claimed that “decoding” of the electoral bonds and the matching of the donor to the donations would be a complex process as stringent measures were undertaken to ensure that the identity of the donors was kept anonymous.
It may be noted that the Lok Sabha elections are slated to be held across India around Apil-May. The Bharatiya Janata Party under Prime Minister Narendra Modi is looking to come back to power for the third consecutive term.
