Election Commission publishes electoral bond data with matching numbers

The 552 page list of parties that redeemed these bonds is of the duration April 12, 2019 to January 24, 2024. The EC said it has uploaded the data received from the SBI on "as is where is basis"

The Election Commission (EC) on Thursday evening made public a fresh data set of electoral bonds, including their alpha-numeric numbers, which enable matching the purchases of these bonds with the political parties that received the funds.

The EC posted the details on its website hours after State Bank of India (SBI), through its Chairman Dinesh Kumar Khara, told the Supreme Court that it had submitted the complete details of electoral bonds, including the “unique alpha-numeric” details of bonds, to the election watchdog.

The EC posted on its website two separate lists -- of the purchasers of the bonds and the political parties that redeemed these bonds. The purchaser list runs into 386 pages, with details of 18,871 bonds bought between April 12, 2019, and January 11, 2024.

See full list

 

The 552-page list of parties that redeemed these bonds pertains the period April 12, 2019, to January 24, 2024.

The EC said it had uploaded the data received from the SBI on “as is where is basis”.

 

In the Supreme Court, the SBI said it had revealed the names of the purchasers of the bonds, the denominations and the specific number of the bonds, the names of the parties that encashed the bonds, the last four digits of the bank account numbers of political parties, the denominations and numbers of the bonds encashed.

The affidavit said the complete bank account numbers and KYC details of the political parties and the purchasers of electoral bonds were not being made public because it might compromise the security of the account. However, they are not necessary for identifying the political parties, the filing said.

“SBI has now disclosed all details and that no details (other than complete bank account numbers and KYC Details) have been withheld from disclosure,” the affidavit said.

The disclosed information include: The details of purchasers, serial numbers, URN numbers, journal dates, dates of purchase, dates of expiry, the names of the purchasers, prefixes, bond number, denominations, issuing branch codes, issuing teller and status. The second list has details such as the details of redemption by political parties, serial numbers, dates of encashment, names of the political party, last four digits of the account number, prefixes, bond numbers, denominations, pay branch codes, and pay teller.

The Supreme Court had on Monday told the SBI to not be selective in its disclosure of details regarding electoral bonds and reveal all details, including the alphanumeric number corresponding to each bond.

The chairman of SBI was told by the court to file an affidavit by 5 pm on Thursday, affirming that the bank had disclosed all the details regarding the electoral bonds.

The court said its February 15 judgment mandated SBI to disclose “all details”, including the date, of purchase/redemption, names of purchaser/recipient, and the denominations, and the use of the word “including” means that the details specified in the judgment were illustrative and not exhaustive.

The court also directed the EC to upload on its website the details received from the SBI forthwith upon its receipt.

Background  

The Supreme Court had on February 15 struck down the electoral bond scheme, calling it unconstitutional and manifestly arbitrary.

SBI on March 4 moved the Supreme Court, seeking an extension till June 30, 2024, to furnish information about electoral bonds to the Election Commission (EC).

The court dismissed the plea, directing SBI to share all the details with the EC by March 12 and asked the EC to publish it by March 15.

SBI had said it would require time to match the details of the donor with the political party they had donated to, but the Supreme Court clarified it need not do any such matching and would have to submit the details that are readily available with it.

Accordingly, SBI furnished the electoral bonds details to the EC on March 12, and on March 14, the EC published the details of electoral bonds given by the SBI.

On March 17, the EC released further information regarding electoral bonds, including information on the amount redeemed per political party.

The EC submitted the details in a sealed cover to the court in November 2023.