Rs 130 million were sold at the SBI branch in Mumbai.
Election bonds worth 282.29 million rupees were sold in October ahead of the Bihar Assembly elections, the State Bank of India said on Friday in response to a query on the right to information (RTI).
The bank was responding to a request from Commodore Lokesh K. Batra (retired). He had searched for information “by branch and by denomination” on the sale of electoral bonds between October 19 and 28.
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RTI’s response showed that bonds worth ₹ 282,29,01,000 were sold from nine SBI branches. The Mumbai branch sold the largest amount of election bonds at Rs 130 million.
Election bonds valued at ₹ 1 crore each sold further at 279. This was followed by bonds worth ₹ 10 lakh each – 32 of them were sold. Nine bonds worth one lakh each were also sold. A solitary bond valued at ₹ 1,000, which was not cashed, was transferred to the Prime Minister’s National Relief Fund.
The information in RTI’s response is significant, as a petition challenging the validity of the electoral bonds, presented by the NGO Association for Democratic Reforms, has long been pending in the Supreme Court.
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In October, the NGO had urgently moved the high court against the opening of the sale window just before the Bihar elections. He had asked the court for an urgent hearing.
The request stated that “just before the Bihar Legislative Assembly elections, the State Bank of India, in the XIV Sale Phase, was authorized to issue and collect electoral bonds through its 29 authorized branches from October 19 to October 28″.
The request had stated that the 2018 government notification on the electoral bond scheme stipulated that its sale should occur in the months of January, April, July and October annually.
However, the sale window did not open in April and July, but opened in October, just before the Bihar elections, he said.
The request said that nine months had passed since the last hearing in the case. The petitioner had twice urged the court to suspend implementation of the plan.
In January this year, a bank led by the Chief Justice of India, Sharad A. Bobde, did not find it necessary to suspend the plan.
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