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Synopsis

The State Bank of India (SBI) has filed a compliance affidavit before the Supreme Court today saying that is has disclosed all details of Electoral Bonds, which are in its possession and custody, to the Election Commission of India, including the bonds alphanumeric number.

"The complete bank account numbers and KYC details of the political parties are not being made public as it may compromise the security of the account (cyber security). Similarly, KYC details of purchasers are also not being made public for security reasons, apart from the fact that such information is not fed/collated in the system. However, they are not necessary for identifying the political parties", the affidavit filed by SBI's Chairman adds.

Notably, the SBI, as per the affidavit, has revealed the following information:

1. The name of the purchaser of the bond,
2. The denomination and specific number of the bond,
3. The name of the party that has encashed the bond,
4. Last four digits of the bank account number of political parties
5. The denomination and number of the bond encashed.

On March 18, Supreme Court had directed SBI for complete disclosure of all details in its possession, including the alpha numeric numbers of the electoral bonds purchased and redeemed by today 5 PM. Court had earlier issued notice to the State Bank of India over the issue of it not disclosing the Alpha Numeric Number of the Electoral Bonds in the data that it submitted to the Election Commission of India(ECI) two days back.

This is the second compliance affidavit filed by the nationalized bank. On March 13, the State Bank of India had filed a compliance affidavit before the Supreme Court with regard to its directions to disclose the details of electoral bonds by end of day on March 12, 2024.

This affidavit was 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.

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.