In a giant transfer in the direction of transparency in political funding, the Election Commission of India has uploaded the information of the electoral bonds given to it by the State Bank of India. The particulars have been uploaded on Thursday, a day earlier than the deadline set by the Supreme Court. 

The information pertains to purchases of bonds of three denominations – Rs 1 lakh, Rs 10 lakh and Rs 1 crore – relationship again to April 12, 2019, and divulges purchases by corporations in addition to people.  

The EC’s web site has two lists. The first is of corporations that bought electoral bonds, together with the denomination and dates. The different has names of the political events in addition to the denominations of the bonds and the dates on which they had been encashed. There is, nonetheless, no means of correlating the lists and discovering out which firm or particular person had donated to which celebration. 

The firm that contributed probably the most by means of the tactic is Future Gaming and Hotel Services PR, which purchased bonds value Rs 1,368 crore. Megha Engineering And Infrastructures Limited was second, buying bonds value Rs 966 crore. 

At Rs 410 crore, Qwik Supply Chain Private Limited was a distant third, adopted by Vedanta Limited at Rs 400 crore and Haldia Energy Limited at Rs 377 crore.

Bharti Group is sixth, having donated Rs 247 crore, adopted by Essel Mining And Inds Ltd at 224 crore. The remaining three within the record of high 10 donors had been Western UP Power Transmission Company Limited, which contributed Rs 220 crore, Keventer Foodpark Infra Ltd, which gave 195 crore, and Madanlal Ltd at Rs 185 crore.

Announcing that it has launched the information, the ballot physique stated in a press release, “The Election Commission of India has today uploaded the data on electoral bonds on its website as received from SBI on ‘as is where is basis'”. 

“It may be recalled that in the said matter, ECI has consistently and categorically weighed in favour of disclosure and transparency, a position reflected in the proceedings of the Hon’ble Supreme Court and noted in the order also,” it stated. 

The information could be accessed here. 

Supreme Court’s Warning

During a listening to on Monday, a Supreme Court bench led by Chief Justice DY Chandrachud had come down closely on the SBI for “wilful disobedience of its order” on the information being handed over to the ballot physique by March 6. 

The courtroom had ordered the SBI to submit the information to the Election Commission by Tuesday, warning it of contempt proceedings if it failed to take action. The courtroom had additionally directed the chairman and managing director of the financial institution to file an affidavit after the order had been complied with.

SBI, which is India’s largest financial institution, had submitted the information on Tuesday and submitted the affidavit to the courtroom the day after that. The affidavit acknowledged that 22,217 electoral bonds had been issued between April 2019 and February 15, 2024, earlier than the Supreme Court struck down the scheme after declaring it unconstitutional and arbitrary.

The financial institution stated political events had redeemed 22,030 bonds whereas the remaining 187 had been redeemed and the cash was deposited within the Prime Minister’s nationwide reduction fund, in accordance with the principles.