Electoral Bonds Case: In the event that information regarding the election bonds is not released by tomorrow at the latest, the Supreme Court on Monday threatened to hold the State Bank of India in contempt. SBI’s “wilful disobedience” was severely criticised by the court, which also ordered the company’s Chairman and Managing Director to submit an affidavit after they met its requirements.
Contempt Caution from the Bench
“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 wilful disobedience if SBI does not comply with the directions by the timelines indicated in this order,” a bench led by Chief Justice DY Chandrachud said.
Request to Delay Electoral Bond Data Disclosure
The State Bank of India was pleading with the court to postpone the date of March 6th for disclosing all donor and beneficiary data about electoral bonds. The court declared the electoral bond programme “unconstitutional” last month, citing violations of the public’s right to knowledge.
SBI’s Challenge in Consolidating Donor and Redemption Data
Senior Advocate Harish Salve, who represented the State Bank of India today, emphasised the difficulty the bank had in bringing donor and redemption data—which were kept in different information silos—together. He said, “We need a little more time to comply with Your Lordships’ order.”
Chief Justice Chandrachud responded by pointing out that the court’s orders only required the bank to reveal the information, not to carry out a “matching exercise.” The chief justice also mentioned that the bank’s KYC data showed that it had all the required information.