SBI told to share donors’ list by today
India’s Supreme Court yesterday rejected a plea by the government-run State Bank of India for more time to make public names of individuals and companies who donated billions of rupees to political parties through an opaque funding system.
The court had, on February 15, scrapped the sevenyear-old election funding system that allowed unlimited and anonymous donations to parties, calling it “unconstitutional”.
That decision was a setback for the ruling Bharatiya Janata Party, which has been the largest beneficiary of the system, and came ahead of a national election expected to be held in April or May.
SBI had been asked to share names of the donors, the beneficiaries and the amounts with the independent Election Commission of India (ECI) by March 6 and the poll panel was directed to make it public by March 13.
SBI, however, filed a petition on March 4 seeking time until June 30 — by when elections would be completed — saying it needed time to compile and match the information involving 22,217 donations.
Readily available
Responding to the plea yesterday, the court said the information SBI was asked to share is readily available with the bank and it should be shared with the ECI “by close of business” today.
The ECI should compile the information and publish the details no later than 5pm on March 15, the fivejudge bench ordered.
“We place SBI on notice that we might be inclined to proceed on wilful disobedience of court order if it does not comply with the timeline given today,” the bench led by Chief Justice D Y Chandrachud said.