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New Delhi, A petition has been filed in the <keyword id="19895345" type="General" weightage="20" keywordseo="supreme-court" source="keywords">Supreme Court</keyword> seeking contempt action against the <keyword id="19934368" type="General" weightage="20" keywordseo="state-bank-of-india" source="keywords">State Bank of India</keyword> (SBI) alleging it "wilfully and deliberately" disobeyed the apex court's direction to submit details of contributions made to political parties through electoral bonds to the Election Commission by March 6. The plea, filed by two NGOs, claimed SBI's application seeking extension of time till June 30 to disclose the details of electoral bonds encashed by political parties has been deliberately filed at the last moment to ensure that details of donor and the amount of donations are not disclosed to the public before the upcoming <keyword id="19895394" type="General" weightage="20" keywordseo="lok-sabha" source="keywords">Lok Sabha</keyword> elections. A bench headed by Chief Justice <keyword id="19936357" type="General" weightage="20" keywordseo="d-y-chandrachud" source="keywords">D Y Chandrachud</keyword> on Thursday took note of the submissions by advocate <keyword id="20027334" type="General" weightage="20" keywordseo="prashant-bhushan" source="keywords">Prashant Bhushan</keyword>, who appeared on behalf of NGOs Association for Democratic Reforms and Common Cause, that he wanted initiation of contempt proceedings against the SBI. Bhushan said the SBI's application is likely to be listed on March 11 and the contempt application should also be heard together with it. "Please send an e-mail. I will pass the order," the CJI said. The SBI moved the top court on March 4 seeking extension of time till June 30 to disclose the details of the electoral bonds that were encashed. In a landmark verdict on February 15, a five-judge constitution bench of the apex court had scrapped the Centre's electoral bonds scheme of anonymous political funding, calling it "unconstitutional" and ordering disclosure by the Election Commission of the donors, the amount donated by them and the recipients by March 13. Ordering closure of the scheme forthwith, the top court had directed the SBI, the authorised financial institution under the scheme, to submit by March 6 the details of the electoral bonds purchased since April 12, 2019 till date to Election Commission (EC), which will publish the information on its official website by March 13. In the contempt plea, the NGOs have said that two days before the expiry of the stated deadline, the SBI has filed an application seeking time till June 30 to comply with the directions. "It is submitted that the said application is mala fide and demonstrates a wilful and deliberate disobedience &amp; defiance of the judgement passed by the constitution bench of this court. It is further a clear attempt to undermine the authority of this court," it said. "The petitioner herein is filing the instant petition seeking initiation of contempt proceedings against State Bank of India for wilfully and deliberately disobeying the order dated February 15 passed by this court... wherein this court directed SBI to submit details of contribution made to the political parties through electoral bonds to the Election Commission of India by March 6," it said. It said the affidavit supporting the SBI's application has neither been sworn by the chairman or the managing director of the bank. It said SBI has the record of the unique number allotted to each electoral bond and the know your customer (KYC) details of its purchaser. "The requirement of the KYC is mentioned in section 4 of the EB scheme itself, therefore, the SBI is well aware of the identity of purchasers of each electoral bond," the plea said. It said as per clause 7 of the electoral bond scheme, information furnished by the buyer can be disclosed when demanded by a competent court. "As per clause 12 (4) of the scheme, electoral bonds have to be encashed within fifteen days failing which the amount of bonds not encashed are to be deposited by the bank to the PM relief Fund. Thus, it is inconceivable that SBI does not have the recorded information readily available within its data base," it said. The plea said electoral bonds are "completely traceable" which is evident from the fact that SBI maintains a secret number-based record of donors who buy bonds, and the political parties they donate to. It said as per information received through RTI, in 30 phases of electoral bonds sale, only 19 out of 29 SBI authorised branches sold electoral bonds and 14 SBI branches encashed them. "The data available as on January 2024 further shows that only 25 political parties had opened their account and are eligible for encashing electoral bonds. Therefore, compiling of this information should not be difficult as the system is already in place," it said. "It is mandatory that SBI furnishes all information relating to electoral bonds within stipulated time frame given by this court as voters will not be able to exercise their informed opinion properly during Lok Sabha 2024 if complete information about EBs is not shared with them," it said. The plea said any form of anonymity in the finances of political parties goes against the essence of participatory democracy and people's right to know enshrined under Article 19(1)(a) of the Constitution. It said availability of information about electoral bonds will give voters a chance to truly inspect, express and decide their choices. "This defiant approach of the SBI towards citizen's 'right to know' about huge sums of money received by parties through electoral bonds and corporates in a non-transparent and unaccountable manner is reprehensible and betrays its clear motive to stifle citizen's voice and right to audit actions of the political class, and therefore it should be held as serious breach of contempt by this court," it alleged.

Electoral bonds: Plea seeks contempt action against SBI for disobeying SC's order

<ul><li>It said that the office of <keyword id="6363345" type="UNKNOWN" weightage="20" keywordseo="cji">CJI</keyword> will come under Right to Information act (<keyword id="6356198" type="UNKNOWN" weightage="20" keywordseo="RTI">RTI</keyword>). </li><li>This means that information can be sought by anybody by filing an application.</li><li>However, Justice Ramana who pronounced the verdict also said that RTI should not be allowed to be used as a tool of surveillance. </li></ul> The <keyword id="6354977" type="ORGANIZATION" weightage="20" keywordseo="Supreme-Court">Supreme Court</keyword> of India has made its <keyword id="42759" type="POSITION" weightage="20" keywordseo="Chief-Justice">chief justice</keyword> accountable to the public. It said that the office of CJI will come under Right to Information (RTI) which means that information can be sought by anybody by filing an application. “RTI office of <keyword id="45053" type="POSITION" weightage="20" keywordseo="Chief-Justice-of-India">Chief Justice of India</keyword> is a public authority under RTI. Judicial independence has to be kept in mind while dealing with transparency,” ruled SC in its order. However, Justice Ramana who pronounced the verdict also said that RTI should not be allowed to be used as a tool of surveillance. "Nobody wants to remain in the state of darkness or keep anybody in the state of darkness. The question is drawing a line. In the name of transparency, you can't destroy the institution," the SC bench said. 2010 or now? This order mirrors the Delhi High Court judgement which said that judicial independence was not the privilege of a judge but a responsibility. The case was filed by an RTI activist S C Agarwal who had engaged prominent lawyer Prashant Bhushan to file the case. The controversial case had triggered a debate between transparency and judicial freedom. Bhushan had famously questioned if judges inhabit a “different universe” and described their reluctance to part information as “disturbing”. This is the second important judgement that Chief Justice Ranjan Gogoi has pronounced in the last week, <a href="https://www.businessinsider.in/politics/news/ayodhya-ram-mandir-case-supreme-court-verdict-top-highlights/articleshow/71979856.cms">after AYodhya case order on Saturday (November 9). </a>

Chief Justice of India will now come under RTI lens, says Supreme Court

The Right to Information (RTI) Act was enacted in 2005 and even after a decade it remains under-utilised as less than 1% Indians use the right to know. 
 A study conducted by the <keyword id="78779" type="ORGANIZATION" weightage="100" keywordseo="Commonwealth-Human-Rights-Initiative">Commonwealth Human Rights Initiative</keyword> (CHRI) revealed that only 0.37-0.41% the country’s population sought information under the RTI Act last year in 2014. 
 
Also, the survey stated that 0.5-0.6% citizens of 18 years of age and above used the powerful tool. 
 
CHRI analysed the data of several states and concluded that Chhattisgarh captured the urban-rural break-up. 
 
Chhattisgarh witnessed a 21% increase in the number of RTI applications in 2014 but less than one-fifth of the applicants were living in villages. 
 
The study revealed that more men exercised their right to know when compared to women. In Chhattisgarh, women constituted 6.9% of the RTI applicants. 
 
Not only Chhattisgarh, even Nagaland witnessed gender break-up as in the latter state, 2.53% of the RTI applicants were women. 
Meanwhile, number of applicants from Scheduled Castes and Scheduled Tribes category increased. In Chhattisgarh, RTI applicants belonging to SC almost doubled in a year with 6.37%. Likewise, RTI applicants from ST increased from 3.06% in 2013 to 5.5% in 2014.

Has the RTI Act been a failure? 10 years hence only 0.41% Indians seek info via RTI Act

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Electoral bonds: Plea seeks contempt action against SBI for disobeying SC's order

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Has the RTI Act been a failure? 10 years hence only 0.41% Indians seek info via RTI Act

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