An investor advisory has blasted the corporate governance practices at State Bank of India, saying the nation’s largest lender is weighed down by its own laws which mostly overrule all other regulations, making a mockery of the rights of public shareholders.

The immediate reaction from Institutional Investor Advisory Services (IiAS) is the invite that SBI has sent out to shareholders for an EGM on June 17 amid the Covid-19 pandemic, as the State Bank of India Act of 1955, which created it, does not envisage or allow it to hold the extra-ordinary general meeting digitally/electronically or even an e-voting.

“SBI’s ability to become a beacon of good corporate governance is being scuttled by the half-century old State Bank Act, 1955. It is compelled to hold a physical EGM on June 16 at a time the Covid-19 pandemic is raging,” IiAS says in a note, suggesting the necessity to amend the SBI Act.