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Former Finance Secretary Subhash Garg has termed the action of State Bank of India (SBI) in the electoral bond case as completely illegal. Garg said that the bank should not have recorded the unique alpha-numeric numbers of the electoral bonds.

On Saturday, Garg was quoted as saying that by doing so, it (SBI) has violated the promise of anonymity made to donors under the Electoral Bond Scheme, 2018. Bond numbers can help in matching those who bought bonds and the political parties who encashed them.

declared the affidavit wrong

He said that by recording the alphanumeric number of electoral bonds, SBI has hit the core feature of the scheme which was brought by the government in 2018 to enable anonymous political donations. Garg, in an interview to The Indian Express, also alleged that the first affidavit filed by SBI in connection with the electoral bond case was clearly false.

He quoted SBI's earlier affidavit as saying that information about donors and parties was physically kept in two files and it would take three months to match it.

SBI was the only authorized bank.

Let us tell you that Garg's statement has come a few days after the Election Commission published the entire electoral bond data presented by SBI on the orders of the Supreme Court. The latest data consists of alpha-numeric numbers. State Bank of India was the only bank authorized to sell and encash electoral bonds. The bonds were first issued in March 2018 and were being sold until they were declared invalid by the Supreme Court on February 15.

Let us tell you that the Supreme Court last heard the electoral bond case on March 18. That day Chief Justice D.Y. Chandrachud had sternly reprimanded SBI and asked it to share all the details (including alphanumeric numbers) related to electoral bonds by 5 pm on March 21. Besides, instructions were also given to the Election Commission to make it public on its website. On Thursday, SBI has filed a compliance report on this order.