Turning down the State Bank of India's (SBI) request for more time to disclose details of the electoral bonds scheme, the Supreme Court today said the bank must share the details with the Election Commission of India (ECI) by tomorrow. The poll body has been asked to publish the details on its website by 5 pm on Friday.

The court also warned that it will initiate contempt proceedings against the government-run bank if it does not provide the information by tomorrow.

The five-judge bench led by Chief Justice of India (CJI) DY Chandrachud rapped SBI for its "disobedience" in not complying with its previous order to furnish all details of electoral bond purchases to the EC by March 6, and delaying the process. "We place SBI on notice that this Court may be inclined to proceed against it for wilful disobedience if SBI does not comply with the directions by the timelines indicated in this order," the bench said.

Hearing SBI's request for more time to provide details of the now-scrapped scheme, the Supreme Court fielded tough questions and asked what the bank has done for the past 26 days. The SBI had approached the court for an extension, allowing it to disclose the details by June 30.

Earlier, The court had, in a landmark verdict on February 15, scrapped the electoral bonds scheme and directed the Election Commission to make the details of donation public by March 13.

The SBI's plea for more time was opposed by the Association for Democratic Reforms (ADR), which was among the petitioners who had challenged the electoral bonds scheme brought by the Narendra Modi government in 2017. The ADR had said the bank application has been filed at the last moment to ensure the details are not public before the upcoming Lok Sabha polls.

Appearing for SBI, Senior Advocate Harish Salve said the bank had followed an SOP to store information about the electoral bonds scheme outside the core banking system. "We need a little more time to comply with the order. We are trying to collate the info and we are having to reverse the entire process. We as a bank were told that this is supposed to be a secret," he said.

Chief Justice of India DY Chandrachud noted that it was submitted that the donor details were kept in sealed cover in a Mumbai branch of the bank.

"It's a serious matter when you come up with extension like this. Our judgement was crystal clear," said Justice Sanjiv Khanna. He also chimed in, saying, "All details are in sealed cover, and you just have to open the sealed cover and give details."