New Delhi: The State Bank of India (SBI) has furnished information on electoral bonds purchased and encashed since 2019 to the Election Commission of India (ECI).
In a post on X (formerly Twitter), the ECI has confirmed receipt of the data from the SBI.
“In compliance of Hon’ble Supreme Court’s directions to the SBI, contained in its order dated Feb 15 & 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 post reads.
Yesterday, the Supreme Court rejected the bank’s plea for extra time till June 30 to furnish the details and asked it to do so by today, adding that it may proceed against the bank on grounds on wilful disobedience if the new deadline was not met.
It also asked the ECI to make the details public on its website by Friday (March 15).
When asked by reporters to confirm when it would upload the details onto its site, the ECI did not immediately offer a response.
The Law Today news site cited ECI sources as saying that because the data is in a raw format, its upload by Friday “is likely to be a challenge”.
Electoral bonds are interest-free financial instruments that individuals or groups may use to make anonymous donations to political parties.
But on February 15 this year, the Supreme Court said the bonds violated voters’ right to information and were thus unconstitutional.
In its judgement, the top court gave the SBI time till March 6 to provide information to the ECI on the details of electoral bonds purchased since April 12, 2019.
This data was to include the date the bonds were purchased on, their denominations and the names of who purchased them.
The court also said ordered for data on every electoral bond encashed by political parties since that date to be furnished, including the date they were encashed on and the bonds’ denominations.
Two days before the March 6 deadline, the SBI said it needed time till June 30 to furnish the data because it had to compile 44,434 sets of information from two ‘information silos’.
However, the Supreme Court asked the bank what it had done since February 15 and pointed out that the bank already had the necessary information with it.
Rs 16,518 crore worth of electoral bonds were sold from 2018 to the start of 2024, the government recently informed parliament.
The ruling BJP has by far been the biggest beneficiary of the scheme.
Of the total number of electoral bonds – worth Rs 12,008 crore – sold between 2017-2018 and 2022-2023, the BJP received nearly 55%, or Rs 6,564 crore.
This is a developing story.