SC Junks Plea For Review Of Judgement On Electoral Bonds Scheme

A five-judge bench led by CJI DY Chandrachud and comprising justices passed the order on a plea filed by advocate Mathews J Nedumpara and others.

New Delhi:The Supreme Court has junked a plea seeking a review of its judgement, which struck down the electoral bonds scheme as unconstitutional. A five-judge bench led by Chief Justice of India DY Chandrachud and comprising justices Sanjiv Khanna, BR Gavai, JB Pardiwala and Manoj Misra passed the order on a plea filed by advocate Mathews J Nedumpara and others.

“Having perused the review petitions, there is no error apparent on the face of the record. No case for review under Order XLVII Rule 1 of the Supreme Court Rules 2013. The review petitions are, therefore, dismissed”, said the bench, in an order passed on September 25, which was uploaded recently.

The apex court also dismissed the application for listing of the review petitions in an open court. “Application for listing the review petitions in open court is dismissed”, said the bench. According to the apex court rules, a review petition is considered in the chambers of judges without the presence of counsel through the circulation of documents.

On February 15, the top court, in a landmark verdict, had scrapped the Centre's electoral bonds scheme that allowed anonymous political funding, calling it "unconstitutional" and ordered disclosure by the Election Commission of donors, the amount donated by them and the recipients by March 13.

The apex court had also directed the SBI to provide all the data related to it to the Election Commission for uploading on its website. According to the data, electoral bonds worth about Rs 16,518 crore were encashed by the political parties. The apex court had delivered the judgment on a clutch of petitions filed by NGO, the Association for Democratic Reforms (ADR), and others.