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Synopsis

The State Bank of India has filed a compliance affidavit before the Supreme Court of India with regard to its directions to disclose the details of electoral bonds by end of day on March 12, 2024.

Filed through the Chairman of SBI, the affidavit states, "The State Bank of India has ready records in which the date of purchase, denomination and name of buyer were recorded, and [in relation to the political parties] the date of encashment and the denominations of the bonds encashed were recorded. In respectful compliance with the aforesaid directions, before the close of business hours on 12.03.2024 a record of this information was made available to the Election Commission of India (ECD by hand delivering in digital
form..".

The top court has been further told that aforesaid data has been furnished in respect of bonds purchased and redeemed between April 12, 2019 to February 15, 2024.

"A total number of 22,217 bonds were purchased during the period 01.04.2019 till 15.02.2024", court has been told. Furthermore, out of these 22,030 bonds were redeemed, the affidavit adds.

This affidavit has been submitted by the SBI after a Constitution bench of the Supreme Court had dismissed its application for extension of time till June 30, 2024 for disclosing details of such bonds purchased since April 12, 2019, contending decoding it is a complex exercise and would require time.

Noting that problems have arisen for SBI when it thought that a matching exercise was to be carried out by it of the doner and bond details, a CJI Chandrachud led bench had observed, "The operative directions of this court directed the SBI to disclose the transactions as set out in directions B and C. SBI submits in its application itself that the donor and redemption details are available. The directions require to disclose information already available with it..".

Accordingly, Court has directed SBI to disclose the details by end of day March 12.  "Though we are not exercising contempt jurisdiction, we place SBI on notice that this court will proceed for WILFUL DISOBEDIENCE if it does not adhere to our directions", the order further added.

The Supreme Court had on February 15, 2024 declared Electoral Bonds scheme for donation to political parties as unconstitutional.  Court had told SBI to furnish all the information on bonds to the Election Commission by March 6, 2024, which was further directed to upload the details on its website. 

It had further directed that Electoral Bonds which are within the validity period of fifteen days but that which have not been encashed by the political party yet shall be returned by the political party or the purchaser depending on who is in possession of the bond to the issuing bank.

Case Title: Association for Democratic Reforms & Anr. vs. Union of India & Ors.