22,217 Electoral Bonds issues between 2019-24: SBI in compliance affidavit to SC

Supreme Court (Photo: SNS)


The State Bank of India (SBI) on Wednesday filed an affidavit in the Supreme Court apprising it that in compliance of the top court’s order, the bank has furnished electoral bond (EB) details to the Election Commission of India.
The details given to the EC include date of purchase of each Electoral Bond, the name of the purchaser and the denomination of the Electoral Bond purchased has been furnished to the Election Commission of India.
The data given by the SBI to the ECI has details of Electoral Bonds purchased and redeemed between April 12, 2019 to February 15, 2024.
“From April 1 to 11, 2019 total number of Electoral Bonds purchased was 3346 and a total number of bonds redeemed was 1609,” the SBI stated in its affidavit.
The bank further told the Supreme Court that from April 12, 2019 to February 15, 2024 total number of Electoral Bonds purchased was 18,871 and the total number of bonds redeemed was 20,421.
The constitution bench of the Supreme Court had also asked the SBI to furnish details of the political parties that received Electoral Bonds since April 12, 2019, and all the particulars received and submit them to the Election Commission of India by March 6.
However, the bank didn’t comply with the court’s order and instead filed a plea before it seeking time till June 30.
However, the apex court dismissed the bank’s petition and slammed it for non-compliance of its earlier order. The court gave SBI 24 hours time to provide data on Electoral Bonds to the ECI by March 12 and directed the poll panel to publish it on its official website by 5 pm on March 15.
The Election Commission on Tuesday confirmed that it has recieved the data on Electoral Bonds form the SBI.