The State Bank of India (SBI) has filed a compliance affidavit with the Supreme Court in the electoral bonds case. The bank informed the court that a total number of 22,217 bonds were purchased during the period from April 1, 2019, to February 15, 2024, out of which, 22,030 electoral bonds were redeemed.
The amount of electoral bonds was not encashed by poll parties within the validity period of 15 days, it was rather transferred to the Prime Minister’s relief funds, the SBI said. Bank’s Chief Managing Director, Dinesh Khara filed the affidavit.
In the affidavit, SBI said it has “ready records in which the date of purchase, denomination, and name of the buyer were recorded, and (in relation to the political parties) the date of encashment and the denominations of the bonds encashed were recorded.”
“In respectful compliance with the aforesaid directions, before the close of business hours on March 12, 2024, a record of this information was made available to the Election Commission of India (ECI) by hand delivering in digital form (password protected),” it stated.
The SBI also said, “The date of purchase of each Electoral Bond, the name of the purchaser, and the denomination of the Electoral Bond purchased has been furnished. The date of encashment of the Electoral Bonds, the name of political parties who have received the contributions, and the denomination of the said bonds has also been furnished.”
According to sources, SBI has complied with the orders of the court and submitted the details of the electoral bonds to the Election Commission. The SBI has issued electoral bonds worth Rs 16,518 crore in 30 tranches since the inception of the scheme in 2018.
The Supreme Court, however, in a verdict on February 15, scrapped 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 recipients.
SBI had sought time till June 30 for disclosure of the details. Its plea, however, was rejected by the court, and it asked the bank to submit all details to the Election Commission by the close of working hours on Tuesday.
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