The ADR, in its petition filed on Thursday, accused the SBI of “wilfully and deliberately” disobeying the judgment passed by the Supreme Court on February 15.

The Association for Democratic Reforms (ADR), the petitioner in the plea challenging the validity of electoral reforms, has filed a contempt petition against the Supreme Court for “disobeying” the orders of the Constitution bench of the top court in the matter.

“SBI has wilfully and deliberately disobeyed the judgment passed by the Constitution Bench of this Hon’ble Court, and the same not only negates the right to information of the citizens but also wilfully undermines the authority of this Hon’ble Court,” the petition reads, according to Live Law.

The development comes after the State Bank of India filed an application in the Supreme Court seeking an extension of time to furnish several details of the electoral bonds till June 30, 2024. In its order dated February 15, the Supreme Court had directed the state-run lender to submit the details to the Election Commission of India by March 6.

The matter was mentioned before the court of Chief Justice of India DY Chandrachud by senior advocate Prashant Bhushan. He pointed out that the SBI’s application seeking an extension of the March 6 deadline was likely to be listed on Monday and sought the listing of the ADR’s contempt petition along with the SBI’s plea. The CJI’s order in this regard is expected today.

What does ADR’s application state?

In its order dated February 15, the Supreme Court directed the State Bank of India to submit to the Election Commission details of electoral bonds purchased since April 12, 2019, by March 6. However, on March 4, the SBI filed an application before the Supreme Court seeking an extension of the deadline from March 6 to June 30, 2024, to furnish the information citing practical diffculties and citing the complexity of decoding and compiling data from the sale of these bonds.

As per the ADR’s application, the SBI’s request is “mala fide” and an attempt to thwart efforts to bring transparency ahead of the Lok Sabha elections, scheduled to be held in April-May. The ADR argues that the SBI’s IT system designed for managing electoral bonds is already in place and can easily generate reports based on unique numbers assigned to each bond.

The petition further contends that voters have a fundamental right to know bout the substantial sums of money contributed to political parties through electoral bonds. The petition argues that the lack of transparency goes against the essence of participatory democracy enshrined in Article 19(1)(a) of the Constitution.