In what can be termed as one of the most significant revelations amongst all disclosures made so far, the Election Commission of India (ECI) uploaded the third instalment of data regarding electoral bonds today at 6:48 p.m., sourced from the State Bank of India (SBI).
The EC press release stated: “In compliance of Hon’ble Supreme Court’s directions, contained in its order dated Feb 15, March 11, 2013 and March 18, 2024 (in the matter of WPC No 880 of 2017), the State Bank of India (SBI) has provided the data pertaining to the electoral bonds to the Election Commission of India (ECI) today i.e March 21, 2024. The Election Commission of India has uploaded the data on its website as received from SBI on “as is where is basis.”
In what can be termed as one of the most significant revelations amongst all disclosures made so far, the Election Commission of India (ECI) uploaded the third instalment of data regarding electoral bonds today at 6:48 p.m., sourced from the State Bank of India (SBI).
The EC press release stated: “In compliance of Hon’ble Supreme Court’s directions, contained in its order dated Feb 15, March 11, 2013 and March 18, 2024 (in the matter of WPC No 880 of 2017), the State Bank of India (SBI) has provided the data pertaining to the electoral bonds to the Election Commission of India (ECI) today i.e March 21, 2024. The Election Commission of India has uploaded the data on its website as received from SBI on “as is where is basis.”
The Supreme Court had previously reprimanded the SBI for failing to disclose full details regarding electoral bonds bought or redeemed post its April 12, 2019 interim directive, including their unique alphanumeric codes, to the ECI. The apex court further directed the SBI to submit an affidavit regarding compliance by 5 p.m. on March 21.
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The latest disclosure by the SBI, subsequently made public by the ECI, represents a crucial addition to the series of documents revealed thus far. Prior releases by the ECI contained only two sets of information: the first delineating donor details, donation dates, and amounts contributed, while the second outlined political party names, encashment dates, and amounts received. Notably absent was the crucial link connecting donors to specific political parties, a void now addressed by the latest data release.
Following the Supreme Court's stringent stance against the SBI, this data has now been revealed to the public. The latest dataset comprises two distinct sets of information. The first set includes reference numbers, journal dates, purchase dates, expiry dates, donor names, bond numbers, denominations, issue branch codes, issue teller codes, and the status (paid or expired) of the electoral bonds procured by donors.
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The second set of data encompasses the date of encashment of electoral bonds by political parties, along with their names, partial account numbers, bond numbers, encashed denominations, pay branch codes, and pay teller numbers associated with the electoral bond encashments. With the publication of this information, one can readily discern the linkage between donors and recipients by simply cross-referencing the bond numbers from the first dataset with those in the second.
Click here to access the first set of data that has the details of the companies that made donations to political parties.
Click here to access the second set of data that has the details of the political parties that encashed funds via electoral bonds from donors.