NEW DELHI, 7 Mar: A petition has been filed in the Supreme Court, seeking contempt action against the State Bank of India (SBI) alleging that it “willfully and deliberately” disobeyed the apex court’s direction to submit details of contributions made to political parties through electoral bonds to the Election Commission of India (ECI) by 6 March.
The plea, filed by two NGOs, claimed that the SBI’s application seeking extension of time till 30 June to disclose the details of electoral bonds encashed by political parties has been deliberately filed at the last moment to ensure that details of the donors and the amount of donations are not disclosed to the public before the upcoming Lok Sabha elections.
A bench headed by Chief Justice DY Chandrachud on Thursday took note of the submissions by advocate Prashant Bhushan, who appeared on behalf of NGOs Association for Democratic Reforms and Common Cause, that he wanted initiation of contempt proceedings against the SBI.
Bhushan said that the SBI’s application is likely to be listed on 11 March and the contempt application should also be heard together with it.
“Please send an email. I will pass the order,” the CJI said.
The SBI moved the top court on 4 March, seeking extension of time till 30 June to disclose the details of the electoral bonds that were encashed.
In a landmark verdict on 15 February, a five-judge constitution bench of the apex court had scrapped the Centre’s electoral bonds scheme of anonymous political funding, calling it “unconstitutional” and ordering disclosure by the ECI of the donors, the amount donated by them, and the recipients 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 6 March the details of the electoral bonds purchased since 12 April, 2019 till date to the ECI, which was to publish the information on its official website by 13 March.
In the contempt plea, the NGOs said that two days before the expiry of the stated deadline, the SBI has filed an application, seeking time till 30 June to comply with the directions.
“It is submitted that the said application is mala fide and demonstrates a willful and deliberate disobedience and defiance of the judgment passed by the constitution bench of this court. It is further a clear attempt to undermine the authority of this court,” it said.
“The petitioner herein is filing the instant petition, seeking initiation of contempt proceedings against State Bank of India for willfully and deliberately disobeying the order dated 15 February passed by this court… wherein this court directed SBI to submit details of contribution made to the political parties through electoral bonds to the ECI by 6 March,” it said.
It said that the affidavit supporting the SBI’s application has neither been sworn by the chairman or the managing director of the bank.
It said that the SBI has the record of the unique number allotted to each electoral bond and the know your customer (KYC) details of its purchaser.
“The requirement of the KYC is mentioned in Section 4 of the EB scheme itself. Therefore, the SBI is well aware of the identity of purchasers of each electoral bond,” the plea said.
It said that, as per Clause 7 of the electoral bond scheme, information furnished by the buyer can be disclosed when demanded by a competent court.
“As per Clause 12 (4) of the scheme, electoral bonds have to be encashed within 15 days, failing which the amounts of bonds not encashed are to be deposited by the bank to the PM Relief Fund. Thus, it is inconceivable that the SBI does not have the recorded information readily available within its data base,” it said.
The plea said that electoral bonds are “completely traceable,” which is evident from the fact that the SBI maintains a secret number-based record of donors who buy bonds, and the political parties they donate to.
It said that, as per information received through RTI, in 30 phases of electoral bonds sale, only 19 out of 29 SBI authorised branches sold electoral bonds and 14 SBI branches encashed them.
“The data available as on January 2024 further shows that only 25 political parties had opened their account and are eligible for encashing electoral bonds. Therefore, compiling of this information should not be difficult as the system is already in place,” it said.
“It is mandatory that SBI furnishes all information relating to electoral bonds within stipulated time-frame given by this court as voters will not be able to exercise their informed opinion properly during Lok Sabha 2024 if complete information about EBs is not shared with them,” it said.
The plea said that any form of anonymity in the finances of political parties goes against the essence of participatory democracy and the people’s right to know enshrined under Article 19 (1) (a) of the Constitution.
It said that availability of information about electoral bonds will give voters a chance to truly inspect, express and decide their choices.
“This defiant approach of the SBI towards citizen’s ‘right to know’ about huge sums of money received by parties through electoral bonds and corporates in a non-transparent and unaccountable manner is reprehensible and betrays its clear motive to stifle citizen’s voice and right to audit actions of the political class, and therefore it should be held as serious breach of contempt by this court,” it said. (PTI)