The Association for Democratic Reforms (ADR), the main petitioner in the electoral bonds case, took action on March 7 by filing a plea in the Supreme Court (SC), seeking contempt proceedings against the State Bank of India (SBI). This development came after SBI recently requested the apex court for an extension to provide data on electoral bonds.
On March 4, SBI, the largest lender in the country, submitted a petition to the apex court, requesting an extension until June 30, 2024, to furnish the electoral bond data. The bank cited the complexity of decoding the data, attributed to the stringent Standard Operating Procedure (SoP) in place to safeguard donor information, as the reason for the extension request. The original deadline for providing this information was March 6.
According to news agency PTI, the government-controlled lender has yet to provide any information to the Election Commission of India (EC), as mandated by the apex court’s directive issued on February 15. In the same order, the EC was instructed to publish the disclosed information on its official website by March 13.
In its petition, ADR asserted that SBI has deliberately and intentionally disregarded the judgment passed by the Constitution Bench of the Hon’ble Court. The ADR emphasized that SBI’s actions not only impede citizens’ right to information but also undermine the authority of the Hon’ble Court.
