The State Bank of India (SBI) informed the Supreme Court on Wednesday that a total of 22,217 electoral bonds were purchased, with 22,030 of them redeemed by political parties between April 1, 2019, and February 15, 2024. In compliance with the court’s directive, SBI provided the details of these electoral bonds to the Election Commission of India before the end of business hours on March 12. The provided information includes the date of purchase, purchaser names, and bond denominations.
SBI’s chairman Dinesh Kumar Khara filed an affidavit stating that the bank also shared details such as the date of bond encashment, recipient political parties, and bond denominations with the Election Commission. The five-judge Constitution bench, led by Chief Justice D Y Chandrachud, dismissed SBI’s plea for an extension and ordered disclosure of the electoral bond details to the EC by March 12. Additionally, the court instructed the EC to publish the disclosed information on its official website by March 15.
In a significant ruling on February 15, a five-judge Constitution bench invalidated the Centre’s electoral bonds scheme, branding anonymous political funding as “unconstitutional.” The court mandated the disclosure of donors, donated amounts, and recipients by March 13. The scheme was ordered to be shut down, and SBI, the scheme’s authorized financial institution, was directed to submit details of electoral bonds purchased since April 12, 2019, by March 6 to the EC.
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