A five-judge constitution bench of the Supreme Court will convene on 11 March to consider an application by the State Bank of India (SBI) requesting an extension until 30 June for the disclosure of details regarding each electoral bond cashed by political parties.
The bench, led by Chief Justice D Y Chandrachud, will also deliberate on a separate petition that calls for the initiation of contempt proceedings against the SBI, accusing it of "wilfully and deliberately" flouting the Supreme Court's mandate to furnish details of contributions made to political parties through electoral bonds to the Election Commission by 6 March.
In a significant judgement on 15 February, a five-judge constitution bench declared the government's scheme of anonymous political funding via electoral bonds "unconstitutional". It mandated the Election Commission to reveal the identities of donors, the amounts donated, and the beneficiaries by 13 March.
Ordering closure of the scheme forthwith, the top court had directed the SBI, the authorised financial institution under the scheme, to submit by March 6 the details of the electoral bonds purchased since April 12, 2019 till date to the Election Commission which was asked to publish the information on its official website by March 13.
On March 4, the SBI had moved the apex court seeking extension of time till June 30 to disclose the details of electoral bonds encashed by political parties.
In its application, the SBI has 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.
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