The State Bank of India (SBI), on Wednesday, March 13, has submitted an affidavit to the Supreme Court stating that it has complied with the court’s direction and handed over the data pertaining to electoral bonds to the Election Commission of India (ECI).
The bank, which is the sole issuer of electoral bonds, has submitted at the court that two files with details of donors and details of political parties that encashed the bonds have been given to the ECI in a pen drive. The top court, on March 11, dismissed the plea of SBI seeking more time to submit the data and directed the bank to provide the details by the close of business hours on March 12 and the ECI was directed to publish the details on its website before 5 pm on March 15, 2024.
In the affidavit, SBI has stated that a sealed envelope containing the details of donors and political parties were submitted in two PDF files. “...Please find a sealed envelope containing the above details in two PDF files, one with details of the purchasers of the Electoral Bonds and the other file containing names of the political parties who have encashed these Bonds with all the requisite details, as per order of the Hon'ble Supreme Court. Both the PDF Files are stored in a pen drive. Both the PDF Files are password protected and an envelope containing the passwords for opening these files is also enclosed with this letter,” the bank told the court.
One of the PDF files contains the details of electoral bonds purchased since April 12, 2019, including date of purchase of each bond, name of the purchaser and the denomination of the bond. The second bond contains details of political parties that encashed the bonds, including the date of encashment and denomination of the bond.
The ECI is now expected to collate and release the data by 5 pm on Friday, March 15 as per the court order. The Supreme Court had on Monday rejected SBI’s plea to extend the March 6 deadline for submitting the data to the ECI. A bench headed by Chief Justice DY Chandrachud came down strongly on the bank for "willful disobedience" of its orders and warned it of contempt proceedings on Monday. The SBI had claimed that it would take a considerable amount of time to collect, cross-check and release the data, which was stored in two silos to maintain secrecy.
In a verdict delivered on February 15, the Supreme Court struck down the Electoral Bonds Scheme, 2018 as unconstitutional and ordered the SBI to forthwith stop their issuance. It also asked the SBI to submit details of the electoral bonds purchased since April 2019 to the ECI by March 6 for publication on the official website of the poll body. "SBI must disclose details of each Electoral Bond encashed by political parties which shall include the date of encashment and the denomination of the Electoral Bond. SBI shall submit the above information to the ECI within three weeks from the date of this judgment, that is, by March 6, 2024," the SC had said in its February 15 order.
(With IANS inputs)