SBI shares fall nearly 2% after SC's verdict on electoral bonds details

The bank has been asked to divulge the details of electoral bonds by March 12

Shares of State Bank of India were in the red after the Supreme Court dismissed the lender's extension plea on electoral bonds details.

SBI share price, which began the day at Rs 791, fell by nearly 2 per cent intraday following the SC's verdict. At 12:24 PM, the stock was trading at Rs 772.60 (don 1.9 per cent) as against the larger index Sensex, which was trading 0.58 per cent lower at 73,705. The Bank Nifty index was also trading lower by over 1 per cent at 47,319.

A five-judge Constitution bench led by Chief Justice of India (CJI) DY Chandrachud passed the judgement on Monday, ordering the bank to disclose details by March 12. The Election Commission has been directed to publish this information by March 15.

The top court, in its order, directed SBI to provide two separate sets of details: the name of the purchaser of electoral bonds and the denomination of the bonds along with the bonds redeemed by the respective political parties.

In a landmark verdict delivered on February 15, a five-judge constitution bench scrapped the Centre's electoral bonds scheme that allowed anonymous political funding, calling it "unconstitutional" and ordered disclosure by the Election Commission of the donors, the amount donated by them, and the recipients by March 13.

The top court subsequently directed the SBI, the authorised financial institution under the scheme, to submit by March 6 the details of the electoral bonds purchased from April 12, 2019 till date to the Election Commission, which was asked to publish the information on its official website by March 13.

On March 4, the SBI had moved the apex court seeking extension till June 30 to disclose the details of the electoral bonds encashed by political parties.

Since February 4, the shares of SBI rallied 22 per cent at the bourses till March 7, as against a 2.8 per cent rise in the benchmark S&P BSE Sensex. On March 7, the stock had hit a fresh lifetime high of Rs 793.5 per share, with the market capitalisation hitting Rs 7.06 trillion intraday.