SBI Submits All Details Of Poll Bonds With Serial Numbers To Election Body

After being rapped by the Supreme Court, the State Bank of India has submitted all the details on electoral bonds to the Election Commission. The data includes the all-important serial numbers for the bonds, which will help match the donors with the political parties that were the recipients. 

The SBI submitted an affidavit of compliance to the Supreme Court on Thursday. One of the points of the affidavit reads, "It is respectfully submitted that SBI has now disclosed all details and that no details [other than complete account numbers & KYC details] have been withheld from disclosure." 

The details given by the bank are expected to be uploaded by the Election Commission on its website shortly. 

The SBI had earlier given two lists to the Election Commission, which were released by the poll panel on its website on March 14. The first had the names of the donors, the denominations of the bonds, and the dates on which they were purchased. The other had names of the political parties as well as the denominations of the bonds and the dates on which they were encashed.

Without the unique alphanumeric code, however, there was no way of linking the lists and finding out which donor had given money to which party. The alphanumeric code can only be seen using ultraviolet (UV) light. 

On Monday, the Supreme Court had asked the SBI to disclose all details related to electoral bonds, including the serial numbers, by 5 pm today and also file an affidavit to that effect. The direction had come in response to a petition against the "incomplete data" provided by the bank, which is India's largest. 

"We want all information related to the electoral bonds to be disclosed which is in your possession... The SBI's attitude seems to be 'you tell us what to disclose, we will disclose'. That does not seem to be fair. When we say "all details", it includes all conceivable data... All details should come out. We want to ensure that nothing has been suppressed," Chief Justice DY Chandrachud had said. 

In its affidavit on Thursday, which bears the name of SBI Chairman Dinesh Kumar Khara, the bank stated, "It bears repetition that the SBI is now revealing information [alongwith that already disclosed] which will show:

• The name of the purchaser of the bond,
• The denomination and specific number of the bond,
• The name of the party that has encashed the bond,
• Last four digits of the bank account number of political parties,
• The denomination and number of the bond encashed."

The Supreme Court had also asked the Election Commission to upload the details once it got them from the SBI, and that is likely to happen later on Thursday. 

The electoral bonds scheme had been termed unconstitutional and arbitrary and struck down by the Supreme Court on February 15.