The Election Commission of India (ECI) must receive the details of the electoral bonds scheme by today i.e March 12, Tuesday, the Supreme Court ruled today, rejecting the State Bank of India’s (SBI) request for an extension of time to disclose the information. The poll body has been instructed to post the information on its website by Friday at 5 p.m.
In addition, the court threatened to hold the government-run bank in contempt if it failed to produce the requested documents by today.

Earlier, the Supreme Court asked pointed questions and demanded to know what the bank had been doing for the previous 26 days after considering SBI’s request for more time to provide details of the now-canceled scheme. The SBI had requested an extension from the court, enabling it to disclose the details by June 30.

In a historic ruling on February 15, the court threw out the electoral bonds scheme and ordered the Election Commission to release the donation details by March 13.

The Association for Democratic Reforms (ADR), one of the petitioners who had contested the Narendra Modi government’s electoral bonds scheme in 2017, disagreed with the SBI’s request for additional time. According to the ADR, the application was submitted at the last minute to make sure the information was kept confidential prior to the impending Lok Sabha elections.