Following a reprimand from the Supreme Court regarding the electoral bonds case, the State Bank of India (SBI) has promptly filed an affidavit today, disclosing that it has furnished bond data to the Election Commission of India (EC). The SBI’s compliance affidavit confirms the submission of data to the EC via a password-protected pen drive containing two PDF files.
In its affidavit, the bank revealed that a total of 22,217 electoral bonds were issued between April 2019 and February 15, 2024, prior to the scheme being invalidated by the Supreme Court. Of these bonds, political parties redeemed 22,030, while the remaining 187 were redeemed with the funds deposited into the Prime Minister’s national relief fund as per regulations.
Under the now-defunct electoral bonds scheme, donors could acquire bonds for donations to their preferred parties. However, parties were required to redeem these bonds within 15 days; otherwise, the funds would be directed to the Prime Minister’s relief fund.
In a significant ruling on February 15, the Supreme Court declared the electoral bonds scheme as “unconstitutional,” citing that it infringes upon citizens’ right to information regarding potential quid pro quo arrangements between donors and political parties.
Following this verdict, the State Bank of India (SBI) was instructed to cease issuing the bonds immediately and provide donation details to the Election Commission (EC) for public disclosure. Initially given a deadline of March 6 to submit the data, with the EC directed to make it public by March 13, SBI sought an extension until June 30, a request contested by the Association for Democratic Reforms, one of the petitioners against the scheme.
On Monday, the court rejected SBI’s extension plea, mandating the bank to share the information by Tuesday. Subsequently, the EC has been tasked with uploading the data on its website by 5 pm on Friday.
