Electoral Bonds case | SBI confirms to Supreme Court its ‘complete disclosure’ of electoral bonds data

Details on bonds, their unique numbers, purchasers and encashers, with partial bank numbers, shared with ECI; full account numbers not disclosed for security reasons, not needed to identify political parties, says SBI

KYC details of purchasers have also not been made public for “security reasons”, SBI tells Supreme Court in its compliance affidavit filed on March 21, 2024. File | Photo Credit: V.V. Krishnan

The State Bank of India on Thursday informed the Supreme Court that it has made a “complete disclosure” of all the details regarding the purchase and encashment of electoral bonds in its possession and custody to the Election Commission of India for publication on its official website.

In an affidavit, SBI chairman Dinesh Kumar Khara said that the information shared with the poll body included the names of the purchasers of the bonds, denominations, and specific numbers of individual bonds, the names of the political parties that encashed the bonds, the last four digits of the bank account numbers of political parties, and the denominations and numbers of the bonds encashed.

‘Full bank numbers unnecessary’

SBI, however, said that the complete bank account numbers and KYC details were not disclosed, as making them public may compromise the cyber security of the bank accounts. Similarly, the KYC details of purchasers were also not made public for “security reasons”, it said.

The SBI assured the court that these details were not necessary for identifying the political parties who received anonymous political funding through poll bonds.

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‘Complete disclosure’

On March 18, a five-judge Bench headed by Chief Justice of India D.Y. Chandrachud had asked the bank to be “candid and fair” and not selective while directing it to make a “complete disclosure” of electoral bonds’ data, including their unique hidden alphanumeric and serial numbers, to the Election Commission of India.

The Bench had directed Mr. Khara to submit an affidavit by 5 p.m. on Thursday, swearing under oath that the bank had not withheld any information about the electoral bonds sold and redeemed. The court had also directed the poll body to upload the information immediately after the bank handed it over.

The Bench had further clarified that its February 15, 2024 judgment, striking down the electoral bonds scheme of anonymous political funding, had only directed the disclosure of electoral bonds’ data from April 12, 2019 onwards.

The court had dismissed an application filed by an NGO, Citizens Rights Trust, represented by senior advocate Vijay Hansaria and advocate Sneha Kalita, seeking disclosure regarding electoral bonds bought and encashed prior to April 12, 2019 as well.