The SBI, which had sought an extension of the March 6 deadline set by the Supreme Court to disclose details of electoral bonds, didn’t press for a hearing on the issue and the matter was not listed before the apex court on Wednesday.

In effect, the February 15 judgment of the constitution bench that struck down the electoral bonds scheme as illegal and unconstitutional had attained finality, leaving the government, the SBI and other stakeholders with no option but to comply with it.

However, the SBI had on March 4 filed an application urging the Supreme Court to extend the deadline for disclosing the identities of buyers of electoral bonds to June 30 from March 6, citing “practical” difficulties.

The apex court had on February 15 quashed the electoral bonds scheme of 2018 as being unconstitutional while dealing with a batch of petitions filed by the ADR and others. It had issued the following directions:

• The issuing bank shall herewith stop the issuance of electoral bonds.

• The SBI shall submit details of the electoral bonds purchased since the interim order of this court dated April 12, 2019, till date to the ECI (Election Commission of India). The details shall include the date of purchase of each electoral bond, the name of the purchaser of the bond and the denomination of the electoral bond purchased.

• The SBI shall submit the details of political parties which have received contributions through electoral bonds since the interim order of this court dated April 12, 2019, till date to the ECI. The SBI must disclose details of each electoral bond encashed by political parties which shall include the date of encashment and the denomination of the electoral bond.

• The SBI shall submit the above information to the ECI within three weeks from the date of this judgment, that is, by March 6, 2024.

• The ECI shall publish the information shared by the SBI on its official website within one week of the receipt of the information, that is, by March 13, 2024.

• Electoral bonds which are within the validity period of 15 days but which have not been encashed by the political party yet shall be returned to the issuing bank by the political party or the purchaser depending on who is in possession of the bond. The issuing bank, upon the return of the valid bond, shall refund the amount to the purchaser’s account.