The Supreme Court will on March 11 hear the State Bank of India’s (SBI) plea seeking an extension of time to give details of all electoral bonds encashed from April 2019 onwards. The bank sought an extension till June 30 to comply with the details order.
The 5 judges bench headed by Chief Justice of India D Y Chandrachud will also hear the contempt plea by ADR alleging deliberate delay by SBI.
Last week, the SBI moved the Supreme Court seeking an extension of time till June 30 to disclose details of each electoral bond encashed by political parties.
In its verdict last month, the apex court directed the SBI to furnish the details to the poll panel by March 6.
In its plea, the SBI said that retrieval of information from “each silo” and the procedure of matching the information of one silo to that of the other would be a time-consuming exercise and hence more time is needed to finalise the process.
The top bank also said that due to stringent measures undertaken to ensure that the identity of the donors was kept anonymous, “decoding’ the electoral bonds and matching donors to the donations made would be a complex process.
Opposition Attacks Modi Govt on SBI’s Extention Plea
Meanwhile, the opposition launched a full-out attack on the Modi government over the extension plea. Congress leader Rahul Gandhi slammed the government over SBI’s extension of time to disclose electoral bond details, terming it a “last-ditch attempt” before the Lok Sabha polls to hide Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s “real face.”
Congress president Mallikarjun Kharge said the Congress’s position on the electoral bonds scheme is that it is “opaque, undemocratic and destroyed the level playing field”.
“Modi government is using the largest bank of our country as a shield to hide its dubious dealings through Electoral Bonds,” he said.
CPI(M) General Secretary Sitaram Yechury said SBI’s move to seek an extension on disclosing information related to electoral bonds raises “suspicious apprehensions.”
(With PTI inputs)
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