Electoral bonds: SC rejects SBI's plea for time extension, directs it to furnish details by tomorrow
New Delhi (PTI): A five-judge Constitution bench of the Supreme Court on Monday dismissed the State Bank of India's plea seeking extension of time and directed it to furnish the details of electoral bonds to the Election Commission by close of business hours on March 12.
A bench headed by Chief Justice D Y Chandrachud also directed the EC to publish the details shared by the bank on its official website by 5 pm on March 15.
During the hearing, the bench, also comprising Justices Sanjiv Khanna, B R Gavai, J B Pardiwala, and Manoj Misra, took note of the submissions of senior advocate Harish Salve, appearing for the SBI, that more time was needed for collating the details and matching them as the information were kept in two different silos with its branches.
He further said if the matching exercise is to be done away with, the SBI can complete the exercise within three weeks.
The bench said it had not directed the SBI to match the details of donors and donee with other information.
The SBI has to just open the sealed cover, collate the details and give the information to the Election Commission, the apex court said.
It also asked the bank about the steps taken by it for complying with the directions given by the apex court in its February 15 judgment.
"In the last 26 days, what steps have you taken? Your application is silent on that," the bench said.
It asked the SBI to do a "plain disclosure" as per the court's judgment.
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 donors, the amount donated by them and the recipients by March 13.
The SBI had sought an extension till June 30 to disclose the details of each electoral bond encashed by political parties before the scheme was scrapped.
A separate plea, seeking initiation of contempt action against the SBI, was also heard by the bench.
Let the Truth be known. If you read VB and like VB, please be a VB Supporter and Help us deliver the Truth to one and all.
Mohsin's fifer helps LSG restrict KKR to 155/7 despite Rinku's 83
Lucknow (PTI): Lucknow Super Giants pacer Mohsin Khan added another sordid chapter to Kolkata Knight Riders' batting woes, taking five wickets to restrict the three-time champions to a modest 155 for seven in their IPL match here on Sunday.
Mohsin’s 5 for 23, a personal best for the left-arm pacer in this format, tore apart an already struggling KKR batting unit, as he snaffled the cream wickets of Ajinkya Rahane, Tim Seifert, Cameron Green, Rovman Powell and Anukul Roy.
Rinku Singh (83 not out, 51 balls) made a well-paced fifty and punished Mohammed Shami in the 19th over for 6, 4, 4 and the smoked four sixes in a row against spinner Digvesh Rathi as KKR made 43 runs in the last two overs to go past the 150-run mark.
But his fifty remained a lone act, as Mohsin firmly stood in the limelight.
His bowling ethos were rooted in simple tactics — bang the ball into the black soil pitch to gain bounce or use cutters at various pace to keep the batters guessing.
Mohsin, who started the night with a wicket maiden, showed his variety across two dismissals.
He followed Rahane with a fuller ball as the batter tried to go over the covers, but the ball’s trajectory forced the KKR skipper to just slice the ball up for a simple catch for Aiden Markram.
The 27-year-old stayed calm when Green, who looked comfortable out there while smashing George Linde for two successive sixes, slammed him for a huge maximum.
Two balls later, Mohsin dug one short, challenging Green (34) to go for the pull and the Australian all-rounder took the bait.
The into-the-body angle worked again as Green could only sky the ball to wicketkeeper Rishabh Pant.
Green’s ouster also ended a fifth wicket alliance worth 42 with Rinku Singh.
Bizarre dismissal of Raghuvanshi
=====================
If the existing turmoil was not enough, KKR had to bear the dejection of seeing Angkrish Raghuvanshi getting dismissed obstructing the field.
On the final ball of the fifth over from Prince Yadav, Raghuvanshi nudged one towards mid-on and set off for a single, only to be rejected by Green.
Raghuvanshi put in a dive to save himself but he came in the line of the throw from Shami.
Subsequently, third umpire Rohit Pandit accepted LSG’s appeal and decided that the batter’s turning radius was more than required, eventually resulting in the batter’s dismissal in a rare manner.
