The State Bank of India (SBI), through its Chairman Dinesh Kumar Khara, told the Supreme Court on Thursday that it has submitted complete details of electoral bonds, including the ‘unique alpha-numeric’ details of bonds, to the Election Commission of India (ECI).
The unique numbers would match the buyers and the recipient political parties of the electoral bonds.
The bank said it is now revealing information which includes the name of the purchaser of the bond, the denomination and the specific number of the bond, the name of the party that has encashed the bond, last four digits of the bank account number of political parties, the denomination and number of the bond encashed.
The affidavit said the complete bank account numbers and KYC details of the political parties and the purchasers of electoral bonds are not being made public as it may 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 includes:
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Details of Purchaser: Serial number, URN number, Journal Date, Date of Purchase, Date of Expiry, Name of the Purchaser, Prefix, Bond Number, Denomination, Issue Branch code, Issue Teller, Status.
Details of redemption by Political Parties: Serial Number, Date of Encashment, Name of the political party, Last four digits of the account number, Prefix, Bond Number, Denomination, Pay Branch Code, and Pay Teller.
The Supreme Court had on Monday told the State Bank of India (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 has disclosed all the details regarding the electoral bonds.
The Court said that its February 15 judgment mandated the SBI to disclose "all details" including the date of purchase/redemption, name of purchaser/recipient, and the denomination, and the use of the word "including" means that the details specified in the judgment are illustrative and not exhaustive.
The Court also directed that the Election Commission of India should 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 bonds scheme, calling it unconstitutional and manifestly arbitrary.
SBI on March 4 moved the Supreme Court seeking an extension of time till June 30, 2024, to furnish information about electoral bonds to the Election Commission (EC). The court dismissed the plea, directing the 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 have donated to, but the Supreme Court clarified that it need not do any such matching and would have to submit the details that are readily available with it.
Accordingly, SBI furnished EB details to ECI on March 12, and on March 14, the EC published the details of electoral bonds given by SBI.
On March 17, ECI released further information regarding the electoral bonds, including information on the amount redeemed per political party. ECI submitted the details in a sealed cover to the court in November 2023.
