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Scan for outdated or missing drivers - takes under a minuteDriver Scan →Clear out junk files and repair common Windows errorsFree Scan →The Rs 4,002 crore figure refers to 9,159 electoral bonds sold between 1 March 2018 and 11 April 2019 that were not represented in the SBI list examined by a March 2024 report. The key reason was the date range in the Supreme Court’s disclosure direction: SBI was ordered to provide bond purchase and redemption details for 12 April 2019 through 15 February 2024. The Election Commission of India (ECI) later said it uploaded digitized records of political parties’ earlier sealed-cover filings, but that notice alone does not establish a public, verifiable buyer-to-party match for every bond in the 9,159 count.
Why has data for bonds worth Rs 4,002 crore not been disclosed?
The phrase “not been disclosed” describes the gap in the SBI disclosure list examined in a report published on 15 March 2024; it should not be read as proof that all 9,159 bonds remain absent from every later ECI release. The reported gap covers bonds sold before 12 April 2019, while the Supreme Court’s 2024 direction to SBI began on that date.
Scroll’s investigation, published with Project Electoral Bond, reported that SBI had sold 28,030 bonds worth Rs 16,518 crore from March 2018 onward, based on SBI responses to Right to Information requests. The ECI list the report examined represented 18,871 bonds worth Rs 12,516 crore. Subtracting those figures yields the reported difference: 9,159 bonds worth Rs 4,002 crore. These are figures reported from the records and arithmetic in the article, not totals calculated by the Court. Read the 15 March 2024 Scroll / Project Electoral Bond report.
What the disclosure figures cover
| Record or figure | Period or meaning | Reported amount |
|---|---|---|
| SBI total sales | March 2018 onward, as reported from SBI responses to Right to Information requests | 28,030 bonds; Rs 16,518 crore |
| ECI list examined in the 15 March 2024 report | Bonds represented in the SBI disclosure examined by the report | 18,871 bonds; Rs 12,516 crore |
| Reported difference | Earlier period identified by the report: 1 March 2018 to 11 April 2019 | 9,159 bonds; Rs 4,002 crore |
“Sold,” “purchased,” “redeemed” and “received” describe different stages or records. The Rs 16,518 crore total is reported as sales; the Court’s order framed SBI’s obligation in terms of purchase details from contributors and redemption details for bonds redeemed by political parties. Those measures should not be treated as interchangeable.
How the date boundary created the gap
Political parties filed information under seal in 2019
On 12 April 2019, the Supreme Court issued an interim order under which political parties filed electoral-bond information in sealed covers. The ECI later said those submissions had been deposited with the Court without the sealed covers being opened. This was a separate record-keeping route from the SBI disclosure ordered in 2024. See the ECI’s 17 March 2024 press note.
The 2024 SBI direction began on 12 April 2019
On 15 February 2024, the Supreme Court struck down the Electoral Bond Scheme. Its subsequent order directed SBI to provide the ECI with details of bonds purchased by contributors and redeemed by political parties for the period from 12 April 2019 through 15 February 2024. Because the ordered period did not begin when the scheme started in March 2018, the pre-12 April 2019 sales were outside that particular SBI disclosure requirement. Read the Supreme Court’s 11 March 2024 order.
The March report also described a correction to SBI’s earlier bond-count calculation. That development and the sealed-cover filings are related parts of the disclosure history, but the cited material does not establish that the Court found deliberate concealment of the 9,159 earlier bonds. The date boundary explains why those bonds were not part of the specific SBI list under discussion; it does not, by itself, establish intent.
What changed after the March 2024 report?
On 17 March 2024, the ECI announced that the Supreme Court registry had returned digitized records of the sealed-cover electoral-bond data submitted by political parties, and that the ECI had uploaded those records to its website. The Commission stated: “The Election Commission of India has today uploaded the data received in digitized form from the registry of the Supreme Court on electoral bonds on its website.”
That announcement confirms an upload of the earlier sealed-cover record. It does not, on its own, demonstrate that the upload contains publicly verifiable buyer identities for all 9,159 bonds or that every buyer can be matched to a party. The ECI notice confirms the upload, but the sources cited here do not settle the completeness of buyer-level attribution for the full reported difference.
Independent reader supportYour contribution helps us test, update, and keep practical guides available for everyone.What can and cannot be concluded
- Established: The Rs 4,002 crore figure was reported as the value of 9,159 bonds sold in the period from 1 March 2018 to 11 April 2019, outside the date range of the 2024 SBI direction.
- Established: Political parties had filed information in sealed covers under the 2019 interim arrangement, and the ECI said it uploaded digitized records returned by the Supreme Court registry on 17 March 2024.
- Not established by these notices and reports: That every one of the 9,159 bonds has a publicly verifiable buyer-to-party match in the later ECI upload.
- Not established: That the Court found a deliberate effort to hide the pre-April 2019 data.
A separate application seeking details of bonds sold from 2018 to 2019 was reported in March 2024; reporting about an application is not itself a judicial finding. Read NDTV / PTI’s 17 March 2024 report.
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