On Tuesday, the Supreme Court warned the RBI of contempt proceedings for non-disclosure of annual inspection reports (AIR) of banks under the Right to Information (RTI) Act.

A bench comprising justices L N Rao and M R Shah has given the central bank a week's time to comply with the directions and warned that it will initiate contempt proceedings if it fails to disclose the information on various banks. The matter will be heard on 2 April.

The bench was hearing as many as three petitions filed by parties, including RTI activist Subhash Chandra Agrawal, alleging non-compliance of the law by the Reserve Bank of India (RBI).

In January, a notice was issued by the apex court to RBI on a contempt petition that alleged that the central bank had failed to provide information on the inspection conducted on several banks involved in irregularities in Sahara Group. The petitioners alleged that RBI had denied the disclosure of the AIR on ICICI Bank, HDFC Bank, SBI and Axis Bank despite court orders.

Earlier, the court and Central Information Commission had held that the RBI cannot refuse inspection reports in the public domain under the transparency law.