21 March 2024 10:25 AM GMT
The Chairman of the State Bank of India, Dinesh Kumar Khara, has filed a compliance affidavit in the Supreme Court stating that the SBI has disclosed all details relating to the Electoral Bonds to the Election Commission of India, including the unique numbers of the bonds.
The unique bond numbers enable the matching of the purchasers of the bonds with the political parties which redeemed those bonds.
As per the affidavit, the SBI provided all details of electoral bonds which are in its possession and custody to the Election Commission of India on March 21.
The disclosed information include :
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.
SBI Chairman submitted that the "prefix and the bond number is infact the alphanumeric number".
The affidavit stated that the complete bank account numbers and KYC details of the political parties are not being made public as it may compromise the security of the account. Similarly, KYC details of the purchasers are also not made public. However, they are not necessary for identifying the political parties, the affidavit stated.
SBI Chairman stated that the "SBI has now disclosed all details and that no details (other than complete bank account numbers and KYC Details) have been withheld from disclosure."
It may be recalled that on February 15, a Constitution Bench of the Supreme Court struck down the electoral bonds scheme as unconstitutional as the donor details are kept concealed from the public. The Court directed the SBI to disclose the details of Electoral Bonds sold and redeemed between April 12, 2019 and February 15, 2024 by March 6. However, the SBI filed an application seeking an extension of time till June 30 to disclose the details.
On March 11, the Court rejected the SBI's extension application and directed it to disclose the details to the ECI by the next day. Following that, the SBI disclosed the details of purchasers and recipients of bonds. However, on March 15, the Supreme Court took exception to the fact that the SBI has not disclosed the unique numbers of the bonds, without which the citizens cannot link the donor to the political party. On March 18, the Court clarified that the SBI must disclose all details available with it regarding the bonds, including the alphanumeric numbers. The SBI Chairman was directed to file a compliance affidavit by today 5 PM.
The Election Commission of India was directed to upload the details received from the SBI on its website.