The SBI sought extension of the deadline till June 30 to disclose details of each electoral bond encashed by political parties.

A five-judge bench of the Supreme Court will hear the plea filed by the State Bank of India (SBI) in connection with the electoral bond donor details on March 11. The SBI sought extension of the deadline till June 30 to disclose details of each electoral bond encashed by political parties.

The bench, headed by Chief Justice DY Chandrachud, will also hear a separate plea which has sought initiation of contempt action against the SBI. This plea alleged that the SBI "wilfully and deliberately" disobeyed the Supreme Court's direction to submit details of the contributions made to political parties through electoral bonds to the Election Commission by March 6.

SBI's plea

The SBI was directed to submit by March 6 the details of the electoral bonds purchased since April 12, 2019 till date to the Election Commission which was asked to publish the information on its official website by March 13.

The direction to the SBI was issued after a five-judge constitution bench scrapped the Centre's electoral bonds scheme of anonymous political funding, calling it "unconstitutional" on February 15.

The SBI was the authorised financial institution under the electoral bond scheme. It missed the March 6 deadline.

On March 4, the SBI had moved the Supreme Court seeking extension of time till June 30 to disclose the details of electoral bonds encashed by political parties.

In its application, the SBI has contended that retrieval of information from "each silo" and the procedure of matching the information of one silo to that of the other would be a time-consuming exercise.

Recently, the SBI took down a document listing basic information regarding the purchase of electoral bonds.

Contempt petition against SBI

The Association for Democratic Reforms (ADR) filed a contempt petition in the Supreme Court against the SBI for not complying with the Supreme Court's direction to disclose details of electoral bonds to the Election Commission.

Advocate Prashant Bhushan for ADR mentioned the plea before a bench led by CJI DY Chandrachud on Thursday and apprised the court that the State Bank of India has filed an application for extension, which is likely to be listed on Monday.

Advocate Bhushan urged the Supreme Court to list ADR's plea along with SBI's application.