What Congress said on 1-day deadline for SBI to provide electoral bonds information

Congress says the Supreme Court is once again here to protect Indian democracy.

New Delhi:

Congress on Monday praised the Supreme Court for rejecting the SBI’s plea seeking extension of time to provide details of electoral bonds, saying it had once again come to protect democracy from the “cunning machinations” of the sitting regime.

A five-judge Constitution bench of the Supreme Court on Monday dismissed State Bank of India’s request for extension of time limit and directed it to provide details of electoral bonds to the Election Commission before close of business on March 12.

“The Supreme Court has once again protected Indian democracy from the regime’s cunning machinations,” Congress General Secretary (Organization) KC Venugopal said in a post by ” is ridiculous. In fact, the government is afraid that all their skeletons will be pulled out of the closet,” he said.

During the hearing, a bench comprising Justices Sanjiv Khanna, BR Gavai, JB Pardiwala and Manoj Misra took note of the submissions of Harish Salve, senior counsel appearing for SBI that more time was needed to collate the details and match as the information was being kept in in two different silos and their branches.

He further said that if the matching exercise is cancelled, the SBI can complete the exercise within three weeks.

The judge said it did not direct the bank to match donor and recipient details with other information. The Supreme Court said the SBI must open the seal, verify the details and provide the information to the Election Commission.

It also inquired about the steps taken by the bank to comply with the directions in the Supreme Court’s February 15 judgment.

“What steps have you taken in the last 26 days? Your application says nothing about this,” the bench said.

In a landmark judgment on February 15, a five-judge Constitution bench struck down the Centre’s electoral bonds scheme that allowed anonymous political funding, terming it “unconstitutional” and ordered the Election Commission to disclose donations donors, their donation amounts, and recipient information by March 13.

The SBI had sought extension to June 30 to disclose details of every electoral bond encashed by political parties before the scheme is scrapped.

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