India's top court tells SBI to share electoral bond details by Tuesday

NEW DELHI (Reuters) -- India's Supreme Court on Monday rejected a plea by the government-run State Bank of India for more time to share details of individuals and companies who bought its controversial electoral bonds to fund political parties.

The court said the information sought by the court is readily available with the bank and it should be shared with the Election Commission of India (ECI) "by close of business" on Tuesday.

The ECI should compile the information and publish the details on its website no later than 5:00 pm on March 15, the five-judge bench ordered, days before general elections are expected to be called.

"We place SBI on notice that we might be inclined to proceed on willful disobedience of court order if it does not comply with the timeline given today," the court said.

The court had on Feb. 15 scrapped the seven-year-old election funding system that allowed individuals and companies to make unlimited and anonymous donations to political parties, calling it "unconstitutional."

The decision was a setback for Prime Minister Narendra Modi's Bharatiya Janata Party, which has been the largest beneficiary of the system introduced in 2017.

The system, called Electoral Bonds, was challenged by members of the opposition and a civil society group on the grounds that it hindered the public's right to know who had given money to political parties.