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New Delhi: Regarding electoral bonds, State Bank of India (SBI) told the Supreme Court on Wednesday that between April 1, 2019 and February 15, 2024, political parties purchased a total of 22,217 electoral bonds. SBI gave this information in the affidavit filed in the Supreme Court and said that as per the order of the Supreme Court, the bank has given all the information about the bonds to the Election Commission by Tuesday. On the other hand, the Election Commission has also made it clear that it will publish all the information about the bonds on its website by Friday evening.
SBI CMD Dinesh Khara has told the Supreme Court that we have followed the court's order, SBI has submitted all the information including the names of the buyers who bought and sold the bonds to the Election Commission in PDF format. In a statement to the Supreme Court, SBI has said that the bank has submitted the information through a pen drive and two PDF files in a sealed envelope, which are password protected. The electoral bond amount which has not been given to any party has been deposited in the PM Relief Fund.
The bank said that a total of 22217 electoral bonds have been sold from April 2019 to February 2024. Out of which 2030 bonds have been passed by the political parties and their amount has also been withdrawn. While the remaining 187 bonds have not been passed, they have been deposited in the PM Relief Fund as per rules. Earlier, the bank had asked for time till June 30, however, the Supreme Court had asked to provide the information till Tuesday only. Therefore, SBI handed over this information to the Election Commission. Meanwhile, Chief Election Commissioner Rajiv Kumar said that we have received information about electoral bonds from SBI. According to the order of the Supreme Court, we will release all the information on Friday. We will not cause any delay in disclosing the information.
On the other hand, a letter has been written to President Draupadi Murmu on behalf of Supreme Court Bar Association President Adish C Aggarwala. In which he had said that the details of those who have donated through electoral bonds should be prevented from being made public, because they can be tampered with by political parties. However, the Supreme Court Bar Association has denied this letter of its own president. The Executive Committee of the Bar has distanced itself from the President's letter. And a resolution was passed clarifying that the President's letter was neither approved nor endorsed by the panel members. The committee said that the President's letter is contempt of the Supreme Court. And therefore we refute this letter. When the Bar President wrote a letter to the President to stop him from disclosing the names, the Supreme Court ordered the disclosure of the information, after which the Bar Committee had to reject the letter.
