22,217 electoral bonds bought from April 2019 to 15 February 2024 — SBI’s compliance affidavit in SC

SBI files affidavit saying it has furnished all details of electoral bonds to EC as ordered by SC. Top court had scrapped 7-year-old electoral funding scheme on 15 February.

File photo of the State Bank of India (SBI) in New Delhi | Reuters

New Delhi: The State Bank of India (SBI) has furnished all details of electoral bonds to the Election Commission of India (ECI) as directed by the Supreme Court, the bank told the top court in an affidavit Wednesday.

In the affidavit, which ThePrint has seen, SBI Chairman Dinesh Kumar Khara said that all information about the bonds was provided to the ECI by “hand delivering in digital form (password protected)”.  

The bank said that a total of 18,871 bonds were bought and 20,421 were redeemed between 12 April, 2019 and 15 February, 2024 — the period for which the court ordered it to furnish the details. In addition, it has mentioned that 3,346 bonds were bought and 1,609 redeemed between 1 and 11 April, 2019. So, a total of 22,217 bonds were bought and 22,030 were redeemed between 1 April, 2019 and 15 February, 2024.

The top court had on 15 February scrapped the seven-year-old scheme system that allowed unlimited and anonymous donations to political parties, calling it “unconstitutional”.

The SBI was asked to share names of the donors, the beneficiaries and the amounts with the Election Commission of India (ECI) by 6 March, and the poll panel was directed to make it public by 13 March. The period of purchase of bonds and the encashment by political parties specified by the top court was from 12 April, 2019 to the present.

On 11 March,  when the SBI asked for more time to furnish the details, the court scolded the bank for the delay and gave it 24 hours to send the information to the ECI. It also directed the poll body to upload it on its website by 15 March.

The SBI has given the information to the poll body in “a sealed envelope containing the above details in two PDF files, one with details of the purchasers… and the other file containing names of the political parties who have encashed these Bonds…,” the bank told the ECI in a letter dated 12 March — the SC’s final deadline.

The bank also told the poll body that the amount of the electoral bonds not encashed by political parties had been transferred to the Prime Minister’s National Relief Fund.