The State Bank of India (SBI) on March 13 filed a compliance affidavit with the Supreme Court, wherein it confirmed that it has provided the data on electoral bonds to the EC as sought by the apex court.
A day earlier, India’s biggest bank had submitted the details of poll bonds to the EC. It had sought an extension from the SC to share the data, but its submission was rejected.
As per the affidavit, SBI told the SC that a total of 22,217 electoral bonds were purchased and 22,030 redeemed by political parties between April 1, 2019 and February 15, 2024.
The top court had ordered SBI to share all relevant details by end of business hours on March 12.
Electoral bonds: Some key things to know about the scheme scrapped by SC
The affidavit said that all details sought, including date of purchase of each bond, name of the buyer and the denomination of the bonds were submitted.
The bank also provided details on the names of parties that received the donations, the affidavit filed by SBI’s chairman Dinesh Kumar Khara said.
Earlier, in a landmark verdict, the SC had scrapped the poll bond scheme on the ground that it was unconstitutional. The SBI, the only authorised seller of these bonds, was subsequently ordered to share the details with the poll watchdog.
The bank was originally ordered to submit the data by March 6. The deadline was later stretched to March 12.
