A five-judge constitution bench of the Supreme Court is scheduled to consider an application filed by the State Bank of India (SBI) on March 11. The application seeks an extension of time until June 30 to disclose specifics of each electoral bond cashed by political parties.
Chief Justice D Y Chandrachud leads the bench, which will also address a separate plea. This plea alleges contempt against the SBI, accusing it of deliberately disobeying the Supreme Court's directive to submit details of political party contributions via electoral bonds to the Election Commission by March 6.
In a landmark verdict delivered on February 15, a five-judge constitution bench had scrapped the Centre's electoral bonds scheme of anonymous political funding, calling it unconstitutional and ordering disclosure by the Election Commission of the donors, the amount donated by them and the recipients by March 13.
Following an order to immediately cease the electoral bond scheme, the Supreme Court instructed the State Bank of India (SBI), the authorized financial entity overseeing the scheme, to furnish details of electoral bonds purchased since April 12, 2019, by March 6. These details were to be submitted to the Election Commission, which was further directed to publish the information on its official website by March 13.
On March 4, the SBI petitioned the Supreme Court for an extension until June 30 to disclose the particulars of electoral bonds cashed by political parties. The SBI argued that retrieving information from various sources and cross-referencing it would be a time-consuming process, citing the need to sift through multiple data "silos."