SBI submits electoral bonds details to EC in compliance with SC order: What comes next?

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Also Read: SBI electoral bonds data submitted to Election Commission a day after Supreme Court rebuke “In compliance of the Hon'ble Supreme Court's directions to the SBI, contained in its order dated Feb 15 & March 11, 2024 (in the matter of WPC NO.880 of 2017), data on electoral bonds has been supplied by the State Bank of India to the Election Commission of India, today, March 12, 2024," the poll panel had said. Also Read: SC Bar Association writes to President Murmu, says ‘if donors are singled out …’ The SC had instructed SBI to provide information to EC following the correlation of donor data with political party affiliations.

Electoral Bonds Scheme allows anonymous funding to political parties. In a landmark verdict delivered on February 15, a five-judge Constitution bench had scrapped the Centre's electoral bonds scheme that allowed anonymous political funding, calling it "unconstitutional" and ordered disclosure by the EC of donors.

Also Read: 22,217 bonds purchased of which 22,030 redeemed, says SBI in its compliance affidavit The Election Commission will publish the data on their website. The publication of electoral bonds data by the poll panel assumes significance as it will be released ahead of the 2024 Lok Sabha elections.

The data provided to EC by SBI contains details, including date of purchase of each electoral bond, names of the purchaser and the denomination of the bonds purchased have been furnished. Also Read: When will Election Commission disclose electoral bonds data? Notably, most details about electoral bonds redemption is available to the public.

However, the related donor data was hidden, owing to the anonymity factor of the scheme. However, once the data is published on the EC website, we