Electoral Bonds Case: SC To Hear SBI's Extension Plea For Data Submission Date On March 11

The five-judge panel, led by Chief Justice of India D Y Chandrachud, will also hear Association for Democratic Reforms's contempt motion, which alleges purposeful delay by SBI.

Supreme Court ( Image Source :PTI )

The Supreme Court on March 11 will hear the State Bank of India's (SBI) petition for an extension of deadline to provide information of all electoral bonds encashed since April 2019. The bank requested an extension until June 30 to comply with the detailed order. The five-judge panel, led by Chief Justice of India D Y Chandrachud, will also hear Association for Democratic Reforms's contempt motion, which alleges purposeful delay by SBI. Last Monday, the SBI petitioned the Supreme Court for an extension of time until June 30 to divulge data about each election bond encashed by political parties.

In its decision last month, the Supreme Court ordered the SBI to provide the facts to the poll panel by March 6.

In their petition, the SBI stated that retrieving information from "each silo" and matching the information from one silo to that of the other would be a time-consuming activity, requiring extra time to complete the process. The top bank also stated that owing to strong safeguards in place to guarantee that contributors' identities were kept hidden, "decoding" electoral bonds and linking donors to donations made would be a laborious task. 

This occurred when the Supreme Court ruled that the electoral bond scheme violated Article 19(1)(a) and was unconstitutional, and it was struck down.

Undemocratic, Destroyed Level Of Playing Field: Oppn Attacks Centre Over SBI's Extension Plea

Meanwhile, the opposition launched a full-fledged attack on the Modi government over the extension request. Rahul Gandhi, Congress leader, criticized the government for SBI's extension of time to disclose electoral bond data, calling it a "last-ditch attempt" before the Lok Sabha elections to conceal Prime Minister Narendra Modi's "real face."

Mallikarjun Kharge, the Congress president, stated that the electoral bonds plan is "opaque, undemocratic, and has destroyed the level playing field".