The Election Commission on Sunday made public fresh data on electoral bonds, which it had submitted in sealed covers to the Supreme Court and was later asked to put it in public domain.
As per the data, "Congress redeemed a total of Rs 1,334.35 crore through electoral bonds," informed the EC data. It further stated that the BJP had encashed electoral bonds totalling Rs 6,986.5 crore and maximum Rs 2,555 crore received in 2019-20.
The data further revealed that the Biju Janta Dal (BJD) encashed electoral bonds worth Rs 944.5 crore while YSR Congress encashed Rs 442.8 crore. Meanwhile, the Telugu Desam Party (TDP) had encashed Rs 181.35 crore.
These details are believed to be pertaining to the period before April 12, 2019. Electoral bond details after this date was made public by the poll panel last week. Political parties had filed data on Electoral Bonds in sealed cover as directed by the Supreme Court's interim order dated April 12, 2019, the poll panel said in a statement.
"Data so received from political parties was deposited in the Supreme Court without opening sealed covers. In pursuance of the Supreme Court's order dated March 15, 2024, the Registry of the Supreme Court has returned physical copies along with a digitized record of the same in a pen drive in sealed cover. The Election Commission of India has today uploaded the data received in the digitized form from the registry of the Supreme Court on electoral bonds on its website," EC said.
SC's direction to SBI on electoral bonds
Earlier, the apex court had directed the State Bank of India (SBI) to disclose the details of the bonds to the EC by the close of business hours on March 12. In its fresh application, the poll panel has said the apex court had observed in its March 11 order that "copies of the statements which were filed by the ECI before this court would be maintained in the office of the ECI".
"It is most respectfully submitted herein that in compliance of the orders passed by this court and in order to maintain the confidentiality of the aforesaid information /data, the Election Commission of India forwarded the documents received by it to this court in sealed covers/boxes, without retaining any copies of the same," the application said. "Thus, no copies of the documents/statements filed by the Election Commission of India before this court in the instant case were ever retained by it," it said.
Election Commission's appeal to SC
In its plea, the Election Commission urged the top court to rectify or modify a portion of its March 11 order, requesting the return of documents, data, or information submitted to the court in sealed covers. The purpose is to facilitate compliance with the court's directives.
The application highlighted that in accordance with previous orders from the apex court dated April 12, 2019, and November 2, 2023, the EC had provided the requested information and data, both in sealed covers (comprising 106 sealed envelopes) and sealed boxes, containing 309 and 214 sealed envelopes respectively.
On April 12, 2019, the Supreme Court had issued an interim order instructing political parties to submit details of donations received and expected to be received to the EC in sealed covers.
(With inputs from PTI)
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