The Supreme Court of India has received a contempt suit from the Association of Democratic Reforms (ADR) alleging that the State Bank of India(SBI) has failed to comply with the court’s mandate to provide details on electoral bonds that have been issued and paid out by March 6, 2024.
Before a bench chaired by Chief Justice DY Chandrachud, attorney Prashant Bhushan brought up the contempt plea, saying, “The SBI’s plea seeking an extension of 4 months is likely to be listed on Monday, please list this contempt petition along with it.”
After the petition was numbered, the CJI asked that a letter be delivered, and he would issue orders based on that information.
The State Bank of India filed an application with the Supreme Court two days ago, requesting an extension until June 30, 2024, to disclose the information of bonds that it bought since April 12, 2019, on the grounds that figuring out them is a difficult task that would take time.
“The timeline of three weeks fixed by the court in its judgement dated 15.02.2024 would not be sufficient for the entire exercise to be completed. Therefore, an extension of time may kindly be granted by this Court in order to enable the SBI to comply with the judgement,” the SBI petition said.
SBI noted that 22,217 electoral bonds were utilized to fund contributions to different political parties between April 12, 2019, and the date of the judgement, which is February 15, 2024.
On February 15, 2024, the Supreme Court declared that the Electoral Bonds scheme, which allows anyone to donate money to political parties, is illegal. The Election Commission was instructed by the court to receive all bond-related information from SBI by March 6, 2024, and to post the data on its website.
It also stated that, depending on who is in possession of the bond, the political party or the buyer must return any electoral bonds that are still valid after fifteen days but have not yet been redeemed by the political party to the issuing bank.
Case Title: Association for Democratic Reforms & Anr. vs. Union of India & Ors.