The Association for Democratic Reforms (ADR) on Thursday, March 7, moved the
Supreme Court for contempt of court in an electoral bonds case after the
State Bank of India (SBI) failed to disclose the data by the prescribed deadline of March 6.
ADR's plea alleged that the
SBI violated the apex court's directions. It alleged that despite the availability of data, the SBI has failed to act as directed by the court. It has sought the court's direction for disclosure of bond data by the SBI forthwith.
ADR was the lead petitioner in the electoral bonds case.
The ADR has shared the data on electoral bonds from March 2018 to January 2024:
Electoral Bonds sold:
₹28,030 crore
Money raised: ₹16,518 crore
Top recipients:
BJP: ₹6,564 crore
Congress: ₹1,135 crore
Trinamool Congress: ₹1,096 crore
The SBI has filed a plea seeking an extension of time and is likely to be listed for a hearing before the Supreme Court on March 11, Monday. The ADR is seeking a hearing of the contempt plea, along with the SBI plea for an extension of time to furnish data.
In its contempt plea, the ADR claimed that the SBI has sought an extension of time at the 'last minute' to avoid donor detail disclosure ahead of Lok Sabha polls, thus betraying the motive to stifle voters' right to know.
The plea claimed that bonds are readily traceable through unique serial numbers, and said it's 'inconceivable' that 2.6 lakh SBI employees cannot locate and share data within three weeks.
The ADR said that the SBI has wilfully and deliberately
disobeyed the court judgment. The SBI application is malafide and demonstrates wilful and deliberate disobedience and defiance of the judgment. "Defiant approach by SBI towards citizen's 'Right to know', is reprehensible and betrays its motive to stifle citizen’s voice and right to audit actions of the political class," the ADR said in its plea.
The court had directed the SBI to furnish electoral bond data to the Election Commission by March 6. The SBI had on March 4 moved the Supreme Court seeking an extension of time till June 30 to disclose details of each
electoral bond encashed by the political parties.
In February, a five-judge constitution bench headed by Chief Justice DY Chandrachud had struck down the electoral bonds scheme and directed the SBI to disclose details of each electoral bond encashed by the political parties. The information should include the date of encashment and the denomination of the bonds and be submitted to the poll panel by March 6.
In its application before the apex court, the SBI had contended 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.
The bench had also said that the EC should publish the information shared by the SBI on its official website by March 13.
First Published: Mar 7, 2024 10:44 AM IST
