The Supreme Court on Monday junked the State Bank of India’s plea seeking an extension till June 30 to disclose details of each electoral bond encashed by political parties before the scheme was scrapped last month.
A five-member Constitution bench headed by Chief Justice of India DY Chandrachud asked the SBI to submit the required data within the close of March 12 (Tuesday) business hours. The court also asked the Election Commission of India (ECI) to publish the details of the information supplied to the court as per the interim order on its website.
In a clear-cut warning to the SBI, the court said if the timeline was not adhered to, the court could issue contempt.
Appearing on behalf of SBI, advocate Harish Salve told the court that there was an SOP in place that made sure that there was no name of the purchaser in our core banking system and the bond number.
“We were told that this was supposed to be a secret,” said Salve.
“Now, if you see the direction we have issued, we have not told you to do the matching exercise. We have directed a plain disclosure,” the court said.
“When the purchases were happening, we had divided the information,” said Salve.
“But ultimately all details were sent to the Mumbai main branch,” said CJI DY Chandrachud.
“The frequently asked questions (FAQs) you showed us during the hearing showed that each purchase required Know Your Customer (KYC) details,” said the CJI.
Source: https://www.news18.com/india/electoral-bonds-supreme-court-dismisses-sbi-plea-extension-8810898.html