The Election Commission on Thursday uploaded on its website data about electoral bonds that the State Bank of India submitted to it two days ago. However, the documents uploaded by the poll panel do not mention the serial numbers of the bonds, which would have allowed for matching the entities that donated funds with the political parties that received them.
The poll panel said it has uploaded the data on an “as is where is basis”. The information can be accessed on this link.
The data has been uploaded in the form of two documents. One of them contains information on the dates on which electoral bonds were purchased, the entities that purchased them and the denominations of the bonds. The other one has information about the dates on which electoral bonds were encashed, the political parties that encashed them and the denominations of the bonds.
Details about electoral bonds purchased from April 12, 2019, to January 11 have been made public. The polling body has uploaded details of denominations of electoral bonds encashed between April 12, 2019, and January 24.
The Election Commission uploaded the data on its website in compliance with a Supreme Court judgement passed on February 15. On that day, the court struck down the electoral bonds scheme as unconstitutional, and said they could lead to quid pro quo arrangements between donors and political parties.
The Supreme Court had directed the State Bank of India to issue details of the political parties that received electoral bonds from April 12, 2019, and submit them to the Election Commission by March 6.
However, after the verdict, the bank had approached the court seeking that the deadline be extended till June 30.
On Monday, the court dismissed the bank’s petition and told it to send the data to the Election Commission by March 12. The State Bank of India sent the data to the poll panel within the deadline.
A total of 22,217 electoral bonds were purchased and 22,030 were redeemed by political parties between April 1, 2019, and February 15, 2024, the bank told the Supreme Court.
Electoral bonds were monetary instruments that citizens or corporate groups could buy from the State Bank of India and give to a political party, which then redeems them. The entire process was anonymous since buyers were not required to declare their purchase of these interest-free bonds and political parties did not need to show the source of the money.
Only the total amount received through the electoral bonds is revealed to the Election Commission through the audited accounts statements. The scheme was introduced by the BJP-led Union government in 2018.
The Centre, however, had access to information about the donors as it controls the State Bank of India.
Also read:
‘SBI is lying’: Why banking experts dispute its claims on electoral bonds data
In charts: BJP received more money from electoral bonds than 30 other parties combined
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