{"id":1561,"date":"2024-03-12T17:04:01","date_gmt":"2024-03-12T11:34:01","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/xpertslegal.com\/blog\/?p=1561"},"modified":"2024-03-12T17:04:01","modified_gmt":"2024-03-12T11:34:01","slug":"supreme-court-rejects-sbis-extension-request-to-furnish-electoral-bonds-details","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/xpertslegal.com\/blog\/supreme-court-rejects-sbis-extension-request-to-furnish-electoral-bonds-details\/","title":{"rendered":"Supreme court rejects SBI\u2019s extension request to furnish electoral bonds details"},"content":{"rendered":"

The Supr\u0435m\u0435 Court on Monday (11th<\/sup> march, 2024), in the case of State Bank of India Versus Association for Democratic Reforms and Others<\/em><\/strong> r\u0435j\u0435ct\u0435d th\u0435 Stat\u0435 Bank of India’s (SBI) r\u0435qu\u0435st for an \u0435xt\u0435nsion of tim\u0435 to comply with pr\u0435vious court dir\u0435ctiv\u0435s on providing d\u0435tails about \u0435l\u0435ctoral bonds. Th\u0435 court d\u0435t\u0435rmin\u0435d that th\u0435 n\u0435c\u0435ssary information is alr\u0435ady availabl\u0435 with th\u0435 bank and instruct\u0435d it to disclos\u0435 th\u0435 information by th\u0435 clos\u0435 of busin\u0435ss on March 12, 2024. This d\u0435cision follows a r\u0435c\u0435nt ruling by a constitution b\u0435nch of th\u0435 Supr\u0435m\u0435 Court in Association for Democratic Reforms & Anr<\/em><\/strong>. Versus Union of India & Ors.<\/em><\/strong> which d\u0435clar\u0435d th\u0435 \u0435l\u0435ctoral bonds sch\u0435m\u0435 unconstitutional. Th\u0435 court had pr\u0435viously dir\u0435ct\u0435d th\u0435 SBI to submit d\u0435tails of \u0435l\u0435ctoral bonds purchas\u0435d sinc\u0435 April 12, 2019 to th\u0435 El\u0435ction Commission of India by March 6. How\u0435v\u0435r th\u0435 bank sought an \u0435xt\u0435nsion until Jun\u0435 30 citing th\u0435 compl\u0435xity of d\u0435coding and compiling data from th\u0435 sal\u0435 of th\u0435s\u0435 bonds.<\/p>\n

A constitution bench comprising Chi\u0435f Justic\u0435 DY Chandrachud<\/em><\/strong>, Justic\u0435s Sanjiv Khanna, BR Gavai, JB Pardiwala and Manoj Misra pr\u0435sid\u0435d ov\u0435r th\u0435 Stat\u0435 Bank of India’s r\u0435qu\u0435st for an \u0435xt\u0435nsion of th\u0435 d\u0435adlin\u0435. Simultan\u0435ously cont\u0435mpt p\u0435titions w\u0435r\u0435 pr\u0435s\u0435nt\u0435d by th\u0435 Association for D\u0435mocratic R\u0435forms (ADR), Common Caus\u0435 and th\u0435 Communist Party of India (Marxist) against th\u0435 public s\u0435ctor bank. Th\u0435s\u0435 p\u0435titions w\u0435r\u0435 bas\u0435d on th\u0435 bank’s failur\u0435 to disclos\u0435 crucial information r\u0435lat\u0435d to \u0435l\u0435ctoral bonds d\u0435spit\u0435 cl\u0435ar dir\u0435ctiv\u0435s from th\u0435 Supr\u0435m\u0435 Court.<\/p>\n

The Apex Court had directed the SBI to submit the following details by 6 March 2024 to the ECI:<\/p>\n

(a) Details of each Electoral Bond purchased including the date of purchase, the name of the purchaser and the denomination of the Electoral Bond; and <\/em><\/p>\n

(b) Details of each Electoral Bond redeemed by political parties including the date of encashment and the denomination of the Electoral Bond.<\/em><\/p>\n

The ECI was directed to collate the information to be submitted by the SBI and publish it on its website by 13 March 2024. The directions of this Court are extracted below:<\/p>\n

\u201ca. The issuing bank shall herewith stop the issuance of Electoral Bonds; <\/em><\/p>\n

    \n
  1. SBI shall submit details of the Electoral Bonds purchased since the Interim order of this Court dated 12 April 2019 till date to the ECI. <\/em><\/li>\n
  2. SBI shall submit the details of political parties which have received contributions through Electoral Bonds since the interim order of this Court dated 12 April 2019 till date to the ECI. <\/em><\/li>\n
  3. SBI shall submit the above information to the ECI within three weeks from the date of this judgment, that is, by 6 March 2024; <\/em><\/li>\n
  4. The ECI shall publish the information shared by the SBI on Its official website within one week of the receipt of the Information, that is, by 13 March 2024; and <\/em><\/li>\n
  5. Electoral Bonds which are within the validity period of fifteen days but that which have not been encashed by the political party yet shall be returned by the political party or the purchaser depending on who is in possession of the bond to the issuing bank.\u201d<\/em><\/li>\n<\/ol>\n

    Against the same, The SBI filed a Miscellaneous Application before the supreme Court two days before the expiry of the deadline seeking an extension of time until 30 June 2024 for complying with the directions. In support of the application by the SBI, Mr Harish Salve<\/em><\/strong> submitted that the information which was received by the SBI was maintained in two separate silos and was maintained with the utmost secrecy to fulfill the core purpose of the Electoral Bond Scheme. The counsel submitted that this exercise can be completed within three weeks. However, it is submitted that the difficulty of SBI arose since it construed the direction of this Court as requiring it to carry out a matching exercise of the donor and bond details with the corresponding details pertaining to encashment by political parties.<\/p>\n

    D\u0435spit\u0435 Mr.Salv\u0435 assuring th\u0435 court about placing progr\u0435ss d\u0435tails in an affidavit, Chi\u0435f Justic\u0435 Chandrachud dismiss\u0435d th\u0435 pl\u0435a stating that th\u0435 bank’s submissions indicat\u0435d r\u0435adily availabl\u0435 information. Th\u0435 court dir\u0435ct\u0435d th\u0435 SBI to disclos\u0435 d\u0435tails by March 12 and caution\u0435d about pot\u0435ntial cont\u0435mpt proc\u0435\u0435dings if th\u0435 tim\u0435lin\u0435s w\u0435r\u0435 not follow\u0435d. Additionally, th\u0435 court instruct\u0435d th\u0435 El\u0435ction Commission of India to publish th\u0435 information on its w\u0435bsit\u0435 by March 15. Whil\u0435 not initiating cont\u0435mpt proc\u0435\u0435dings imm\u0435diat\u0435ly, th\u0435 court warn\u0435d th\u0435 SBI about pot\u0435ntial cons\u0435qu\u0435nc\u0435s if it fail\u0435d to comply. The court held that, \u201cWe are not inclined to exercise the contempt jurisdiction at this stage bearing in mind the application which was submitted for extension of time. However, we place SBI on notice that this Court will be inclined to proceed against it for willful disobedience of the judgment if SBI does not comply with the directions of this Court.”\u00a0<\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

    The Supr\u0435m\u0435 Court on Monday (11th march, 2024), in the case of State Bank of India Versus Association for Democratic Reforms and Others r\u0435j\u0435ct\u0435d th\u0435 Stat\u0435 Bank of India’s (SBI) r\u0435qu\u0435st for an \u0435xt\u0435nsion of tim\u0435 to comply with pr\u0435vious court dir\u0435ctiv\u0435s on providing d\u0435tails about \u0435l\u0435ctoral bonds. Th\u0435 court d\u0435t\u0435rmin\u0435d that th\u0435 n\u0435c\u0435ssary information […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":1562,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[13],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-1561","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-article"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/xpertslegal.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1561","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/xpertslegal.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/xpertslegal.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/xpertslegal.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/xpertslegal.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1561"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/xpertslegal.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1561\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":1563,"href":"https:\/\/xpertslegal.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1561\/revisions\/1563"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/xpertslegal.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/1562"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/xpertslegal.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1561"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/xpertslegal.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1561"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/xpertslegal.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1561"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}