Electoral Bonds: Election Commission Uploads Data With Unique Alphanumeric Code on Its Website

New Delhi: The Election Commission of India (ECI) on Thursday uploaded the electoral bonds data containing unique alphanumeric codes, which were submitted by the State Bank of India (SBI), on its official website.  Two separate lists of the donors and the recipients were published by the poll panel on its website after the details were submitted to it by the State Bank of India earlier in the day as per a Supreme Court order. "In compliance with the Supreme Court's directions, SBI has provided data pertaining to electoral bonds to ECI today i.e. March 21, 2024. ECI has uploaded it on its website as received from SBI on an as-is-where-is basis", the Election Commission said. 

Earlier in the day, the State Bank of India told the Supreme Court it has provided the Election Commission all details of electoral bonds, including the unique bond number that would reveal the link between the purchaser and the recipient political party. In a compliance affidavit filed ahead of the 5 p.m. deadline set by the apex court, the SBI chairman said the complete bank account numbers and KYC details of the political parties which redeemed the bonds have not been made public as it may compromise the security of these accounts.

The SBI also said KYC details of purchasers have also not been made public for security reasons. It said complete bank account numbers and KYC details were not necessary for "identifying the political parties".

The affidavit said the SBI has revealed information which will show the name of the purchaser of the bond, its denomination and specific number, the name of the party that encashed it, the last four digits of the bank account number of political parties that redeemed the bond and the denomination and unique number of the bond encashed.

In a third tongue-lashing to the SBI, the apex court had on March 18 told it to stop being "selective" and make "complete disclosure" of all details related to the electoral bonds scheme by March 21.

A five-judge constitution bench headed by Chief Justice D Y Chandrachud had said the details to be disclosed include the unique bond numbers that would reveal the link between the buyers and the recipient political parties.

In the compliance affidavit, the SBI said it has provided all details of the electoral bonds which were in its possession to the EC.

"The complete bank account numbers and KYC details of the political parties are not being made public as it may compromise the security of the account (cyber security)," it said.

"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 affidavit filed by bank chairperson Dinesh Kumar Khara said.

It said in the details disclosed regarding purchasers and redemption by political parties, "the prefix and the bonds number is in fact the alphanumeric number".

"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 in terms of the directions contained in… the judgment dated February 15, 2024 read with order dated March 18, 2024 passed by this court," the affidavit said.