ECI uploads electoral bonds data provided by SBI, including unique numbers

Election Commission of India

The Election Commission of India (ECI) has uploaded the data on Electoral Bonds provided by the State Bank of India (SBI) on March 21, as per the directions of the Supreme Court.

One of the two documents uploaded by ECI link the donors to the unique alphanumeric bond number while the other one provides information about the political party that has encashed the bond.

Earlier today, the chairperson of SBI filed a compliance affidavit in the Supreme Court, saying that the lender has disclosed all details related to electoral bonds to the ECI.

SBI submitted details such as name of the purchaser of the bond, denomination and specific number of the bond, name of the party that encashed the bond, last four digits of the bank account of the political parties, denomination and number of the bond that has been encashed.

On March 18, the top Court had told SBI to stop being selective and make complete disclosure of all details related to the electoral bonds scheme by March 21.

It added that the details must include the unique bond numbers that would match the buyers with the recipient political parties.

In a major verdict, the Supreme Court on February 15 struck down the electoral bonds scheme as unconstitutional and instructed SBI to furnish purchaser details to the Election Commission (EC).

The apex court held that the scheme violates the Right to Information and Section 19(1)(a).