State Bank of India chairman Dinesh Kumar Khara on Wednesday filed an affidavit in the Supreme Court, stating that the bank has provided details regarding the purchase and redemption of electoral bonds to the Election Commission of India in compliance with the top court’s directives.
The affidavit said that details including the date of purchase of each electoral bond, names of the purchaser and the denomination of the bonds purchased have been furnished. It further said that the bank has furnished details like the date of encashment of the electoral bonds, the names of political parties which received the contributions and the denominations of the bonds.
On Tuesday, the SBI submitted details of electoral bonds in digital format to the Election Commission of India. “In compliance of Hon’ble Supreme Court’s directions to the SBI, contained in its order dated Feb 15 and March 11, 2024 (in the matter of WPC NO.880 of 2017), data on electoral bonds has been supplied by State Bank of India to Election Commission of India, today, March 12, 2024,” the EC said in a statement last evening.
The affidavit further states that a total of 22,217 electoral bonds were purchased and 22,030 redeemed by political parties between April 1, 2019 and February 15 this year.
According to The Indian Express, the data will be reviewed by officials at the poll panel after Chief Election Commissioner Rajeev Kumar returns from Jammu and Kashmir on Wednesday night. As per SC’s directives, the Election Commission has time till 5 PM on Friday to upload the data on electoral bonds on its website.
On Monday, a five-judge Constitution bench of the Supreme Court headed by Chief Justice of India DY Chandrachud dismissed the SBI’s application seeking time till June 30 to furnish details of electoral bonds. The top court had, in its order dated February 15, handed SBI a deadline of March 6 to send the details to the EC.
On February 15, the bench scrapped the Centre’s electoral bonds scheme that allowed anonymous political funding, calling it “unconstitutional” and ordered disclosure by the EC of donors, the amount donated by them and the recipients by March 13. Ordering the closure of the scheme, the top court had directed the SBI, the authorised financial institution under the scheme, to submit by March 6 the details of the electoral bonds purchased since April 12, 2019, till date to the EC.