The Congress celebrated the Supreme Court's decision on Monday to reject the State Bank of India's request for an extension to submit details regarding electoral bonds, praising the court for safeguarding democracy from what it termed as the current regime's deceitful tactics. A constitutional bench of five judges ruled against the SBI's plea, instructing it to provide the electoral bond information to the Election Commission by the end of business hours on March 12th.
In a post on X, Congress general secretary, organisation, K C Venugopal, said, The Supreme Court has once again come to protect Indian democracy from the devious machinations of this regime. It was laughable for the SBI to seek an extension on a simple 1 day job. The fact is that the government is scared of all their skeletons tumbling out of the closet, he said.
This significant corruption scandal, as acknowledged by the Supreme Court, will unveil the dubious alliance between the BJP and its corrupt corporate backers, Venugopal asserted. During the proceedings, the bench, which included Justices Sanjiv Khanna, B R Gavai, J B Pardiwala, and Manoj Misra, acknowledged senior advocate Harish Salve's arguments on behalf of the SBI. Salve stated that additional time was necessary to compile and cross-reference the details, as the information was stored in separate databases across the bank's branches.He further mentioned that if the cross-referencing process was waived, the SBI could complete the task within three weeks.
The bench said it had not directed the bank to match the details of donors and donee with other information. The SBI has to just open the sealed cover, collate the details and give the information to the Election Commission, the apex court said. It also asked the bank about the steps taken by it to comply with the directions given by the apex court in its February 15 judgment. In the last 26 days, what steps have you taken? Your application is silent on that, the bench said.
In a historic ruling issued on February 15, a constitutional bench of five judges invalidated the Centre's electoral bonds scheme, which permitted anonymous political contributions, deeming it unconstitutional. The bench ordered the Election Commission to disclose donors, their donation amounts, and the recipients by March 13th.