SBI reveals 22,217 electoral bonds purchased, 22,030 redeemed from April 1, 2019 to Feb 15, 2024

The affidavit, filed by SBI's chairman Dinesh Kumar Khara, said the bank has also furnished to the EC details like date of encashment of the electoral bonds, the names of political parties which received the contributions and the denominations of the bonds.

New Delhi: The State Bank of India has told the Supreme Court that a record on information related to the date of purchase of electoral bonds, denomination and name of buyer, and the date and denominations of encashment have been made available to the Election Commission in digital form.

In a compliance affidavit, the bank said that the information has been provided before the closure of business hours on Tuesday, March 12.

It said that the data has been furnished in respect of bonds purchased and redeemed between April 12, 2019 to February 15, 2024 as per direction of the Supreme Court.

The number of bonds that were purchased was 22,217 and redeemed was 22,030 during the period April 01, 2019 till February 15, 2024.

The total number of bonds purchased between April 1, 2019 and April 11, 2019 was 3,346 and redeemed was 1,609.

Between April 12, 2019 and February 15, 2024, the number of bonds purchased was 18,871 and redeemed 20,421.

The affidavit was filed by the chairman of the SBI in accordance with an order issued by the top court on March 11.

A five-judge bench led by Chief Justice of India D Y Chandrachud had on Monday told the SBI to furnish details of purchasers of electoral bonds and names of political parties that redeemed those instruments by March 12 to the Election Commission, rejecting its plea for extension of time until June 30 for the purpose.

The court had also said that there was no need to do matching work which the SBI claimed was a time consuming exercise as information were kept in two separate silos.

It had then directed the SBI chairman to file a compliance affidavit in the matter.

It had directed the Election Commission to publish the information provided by the SBI on its website by 5 pm on March 15.

In its February 15, 2024 judgment, the Supreme Court had declared the electoral bonds scheme, introduced in 2018 for donation to political parties as unconstitutional for "violating" the citizens fundamental right to information.

The SBI was the designated bank which issued the electoral bonds.