22,217 Electoral Bonds Purchased, 22,030 Redeemed By Political Parties: SBI To SC

New Delhi: A total of 22,217 electoral bonds were purchased and 22,030 redeemed by political parties between April 1, 2019 and February 15 this year, the State Bank of India (SBI) told the Supreme Court on Wednesday.

The remaining 187 bonds were redeemed and the money deposited in the Prime Minister’s national relief fund, according to rules, it added.

In its compliance affidavit, SBI chairman Dinesh Kumar Khara also informed that the bank had submitted data on the electoral bonds to the Election Commission of India (ECI) in a pen drive, containing two PDF files that are password-protected. Details, including date of purchase of each electoral bond, names of the purchaser and the denomination of the bonds purchased have been furnished. The bank has also furnished details on date of encashment of the electoral bonds, the names of political parties which received the contributions and the denominations of the bonds to the EC.

The affidavit, however, does not say whether the unique code on each electoral bond that could be used to match each donation to the party that received it is part of the data.

Under the now-scrapped electoral bonds scheme, donors could purchase bonds to donate to their preferred parties. However, the parties had to redeem the bonds within 15 days, failing which the amount was allocated to the Prime Minister’s relief fund.

In its landmark verdict, the Supreme Court on February 15, held that the electoral bonds scheme was “unconstitutional” and that it “violates the right to information of citizens, about possible quid pro quo” between donors and political parties.

The SBI was ordered to stop issuing the bonds immediately and submit the details of the donations to the EC, which would make them public.