State Bank of India (SBI) has filed an affidavit in the Supreme Court on Wednesday saying that the available information related to electoral bonds has been given to the Election Commission. But despite getting this information, it will not be known yet who donated how much to which party because the available information is given in two different files. One contains the details of the buyers and the other contains the information of the political parties en-cashing the bonds.
SBI Chairman said- We have given two files in pen drive to ECI. A file contains the details of those who bought the bonds. It mentions the date and amount of purchase of the bond. The second file contains information about the political parties en-cashing the bonds. The envelope also contains 2 PDF files. These PDF files are also kept in the pen drive, the password to open them is also given in the envelope.
According to the affidavit, 22 thousand 217 electoral bonds were purchased from April 1, 2019 to February 15, 2024. The money of 22,030 bonds has been en-cashed by political parties. Some parties did not cash 187 bonds within 15 days validity, the amount was transferred to the Prime Minister's Relief Fund.
On March 11, SBI had said in the Supreme Court - There is no problem in giving information related to bonds, but it requires some time. On this, CJI DY Chandrachud asked- What have you done in the 26 days since the last hearing (February 15)?
The Constitution bench of 5 judges had asked SBI to disclose all the information by March 12. The Election Commission should collect all the information and publish it on the website by 5 pm on March 15.
The five-judge Constitution bench of the Supreme Court had banned the sale of electoral bonds on February 15. Also, SBI was directed to give information about electoral bonds purchased from April 12, 2019 till now, to the Election Commission by March 6.
On March 4, SBI had filed a petition in the Supreme Court and sought time till June 30 to provide information. The court also heard the petition of Association for Democratic Reforms (ADR), which demanded a contempt case against SBI for not providing information till March 6.