Manas Dasgupta
NEW DELHI, Mar 21: After being rapped by the Supreme Court, the State Bank of India on Thursday submitted an affidavit of compliance informing the apex court that all the details on electoral bonds had been send to the Election Commission of India.
The data included the all-important serial numbers for the bonds, which will help match the donors with the political parties that were the recipients. One of the points of the affidavit reads, “It is respectfully submitted that SBI has now disclosed all details and that no details [other than complete account numbers & KYC details] have been withheld from disclosure.”
The SBI said the complete bank account numbers and KYC details are not being made public as it “may compromise the security of the account (cyber security)”. Similarly, the KYC details of purchasers have also not been made public for “security reasons” apart from the fact that such information was not fed or collated in the system.
“However, they are not necessary for identifying the political parties,” the SBI said in its affidavit in the Supreme Court. The affidavit states that “the complete bank account numbers and KYC details of 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 details given by the bank are expected to be uploaded by the Election Commission on its website shortly.
The SBI had earlier given two lists to the Election Commission, which were released by the poll panel on its website on March 14. The first had the names of the donors, the denominations of the bonds, and the dates on which they were purchased. The other had names of the political parties as well as the denominations of the bonds and the dates on which they were encashed.
Without the unique alphanumeric code, however, there was no way of linking the lists and finding out which donor had given money to which party. The alphanumeric code can only be seen using ultraviolet (UV) light. On Monday, the Supreme Court had asked the SBI to disclose all details related to electoral bonds, including the serial numbers, by 5 pm today and also file an affidavit to that effect. The direction had come in response to a petition against the “incomplete data” provided by the bank, which is India’s largest.
“We want all information related to the electoral bonds to be disclosed which is in your possession… The SBI’s attitude seems to be ‘you tell us what to disclose, we will disclose’. That does not seem to be fair. When we say “all details”, it includes all conceivable data… All details should come out. We want to ensure that nothing has been suppressed,” Chief Justice DY Chandrachud had said.
In its affidavit on Thursday, which bears the name of SBI Chairman Dinesh Kumar Khara, the bank stated, “It bears repetition that the SBI is now revealing information [alongwith that already disclosed] which will show: the name of the purchaser of the bond, the denomination and specific number of the bond, the name of the party that has encashed the bond, last four digits of the bank account number of political parties and the denomination and number of the bond encashed.”
The Supreme Court on Monday had pulled up the SBI for giving incomplete information directing the bank to “disclose all details” on electoral bonds purchased or redeemed after its April 12, 2019 interim order, including their unique alphanumeric codes, to the Election Commission of India (ECI), and to file an affidavit on compliance by March 21, 5 pm. On March 15, the court had issued notice to the SBI, saying the bank was “duty-bound to furnish the unique alphanumeric codes.
The electoral bonds scheme had been termed unconstitutional and arbitrary and struck down by the Supreme Court on February 15.
