Supreme Court’s responsibility to protect its dignity: Kapil Sibal on SBI plea on electoral bonds issue

Rajya Sabha MP Kapil Sibal criticizes SBI's delay in revealing electoral bond details, questioning the bank's intentions.

Terming the SBI's reasons for seeking an extension in disclosing electoral bond details "puerile", Rajya Sabha MP Kapil Sibal on March 10 said it is the Supreme Court's responsibility to protect its dignity and that it "would not be easy" to accept the bank's plea when a Constitution bench has rendered a judgement.

Mr. Sibal, who led the argument for the petitioners in the Supreme Court case against the electoral bond scheme, said the State Bank of India (SBI) claiming that it would take several weeks to make the data public sounds like "somebody wants to protect somebody".

In a video interview with PTI, Mr. Sibal claimed it was clear that the SBI intended to protect the government. Otherwise, the bank would not have filed an application seeking an extension till June 30 in disclosing electoral bond details when elections are set to take place in April-May, he said.

The senior advocate's remarks assume significance as they come ahead of a hearing by a five-judge Constitution bench of the Supreme Court on SBI's application seeking an extension to disclose the details of each electoral bond encashed by political parties before the scheme was scrapped last month.

The bench, headed by Chief Justice D Y Chandrachud, will also hear a separate plea which has sought the initiation of contempt action against the bank for "wilfully and deliberately" disobeying the apex court's direction to submit details of the contributions made to political parties through electoral bonds to the Election Commission by March 6.

Mr. Sibal said the SBI knows that elections are in April-May and throughout the period after the election is announced, it would be a subject matter of public debate if the details of the electoral bonds are made public.

"They are seeking time and the reasons are obvious and I am sure that the court will see through them. It is puerile for the organisation (SBI) to say that we will have to collate the material, collect the files and then we will have to find out who gave money to whom..this is the 21st century and our dear PM (Narendra Modi) talks about the digitalisation of everything," he said.