Electoral Bonds case: SBI must comply with SC directive tomorrow or face contempt charges: HP Ranina

HP Ranina, Lawyer, Supreme Court, says: “In this age of computerisation and digitisation, all the data would be available on their computers because the banks are totally computerised today. So, my advice to SBI would be to provide whatever information is there on their computers, on their data and if there is some other difficulty, they can always ask for a week or so to provide greater detail.”

Crucial development coming in from the Supreme Court on the electoral bond case front.
HP Ranina: Yes. This is something which the Supreme Court is taking very seriously. Of course, there is a practical difficulty which SBI is facing, but the Supreme Court is not prepared to accept that and therefore they have now given time till 12th of March which is just tomorrow to give the details.

But this means that the SBI will have to comply with the order of the Supreme Court, otherwise it may face contempt charges. For the time being, they have not initiated contempt proceedings, but if they do not comply with this order of 12th March, then obviously some action will be taken by the Supreme Court tomorrow.


Do you think it is convenient and easy to produce all this data in 24 hours?
HP Ranina: In this age of computerisation and digitisation, all the data would be available on their computers because the banks are totally computerised today. So, my advice to SBI would be to provide whatever information is there on their computers, on their data and if there is some other difficulty, they can always ask for a week or so to provide greater detail.

But whatever they have today, they must furnish it tomorrow and they must show their bona fides to the Supreme Court that they have acted in a manner which is in conformity with the Supreme Court's order and therefore no contempt proceedings should be taken against them.