The Supreme Court has upheld its previous decision to scrap the electoral bonds scheme, dismissing a batch of pleas that sought a review of the verdict. The scheme, introduced by the Modi government for anonymous political funding, was previously ruled unconstitutional by the apex court.
A bench comprising Chief Justice D.Y. Chandrachud, along with Justices Sanjiv Khanna, B.R. Gavai, J.B. Pardiwala, and Manoj Misra, concluded that there were no apparent errors on record that would warrant a review of the February 15 decision. The court also declined requests to hear the review petitions in an open court session.
The order, dated September 25 and released today, emphasized that the review petitions did not meet the criteria for reconsideration under Order XLVII Rule 1 of the Supreme Court Rules 2013, leading to their dismissal.
The petitions, filed by advocate Mathews J Nedumpara and others, argued that the scheme’s issues fell within the exclusive domain of legislative and executive policy. They contended that the court overstepped by not recognizing the potentially broad public support for the scheme and by not conducting representative proceedings that would include public opinion.*
In the original ruling, the court found the electoral bond scheme to violate constitutional rights to freedom of speech and information, noting that it allowed ruling parties to unduly influence and coerce contributions. The scheme was critiqued for maintaining donor anonymity, which the court equated to a system of secret ballot, ultimately deeming it incompatible with transparent political financing.
Additionally, the court had directed the State Bank of India (SBI) to disclose details of electoral bonds purchased since April 12, 2019, to the Election Commission, which was subsequently mandated to publish this information online.
