The Supreme Court has declined a review petition challenging its earlier decision, which rejected calls for the confiscation of funds amounting to Rs 16,518 crore received by political parties through the 2018 electoral bond scheme. The bench, consisting of Chief Justice Sanjiv Khanna, and Justices J B Pardiwala and Manoj Misra, dismissed the plea filed by petitioner Khem Singh Bhati.
This decision follows the court’s initial ruling on August 2, 2024, where it denied the petition seeking the seizure of the said funds. The court, in its latest judgment dated March 26, reiterated its stance, stating, “The review petition is dismissed in terms of the signed order. Pending application(s), if any, shall stand disposed of.” The court also declined Bhati’s request for an open-court hearing on the matter.
The controversy surrounding the electoral bond scheme stems from its implementation by the BJP government, which introduced it on January 2, 2018, as a method to ensure transparency in political donations, replacing traditional cash donations. The scheme allowed donations to be made anonymously, a feature that has been both lauded and criticized.
In a landmark judgment on February 15 of the previous year, a five-judge Constitution bench led by former Chief Justice D Y Chandrachud scrapped the scheme, citing concerns over anonymity in political funding. Following this decision, the State Bank of India, which was the authorized institution overseeing the scheme, released the data to the Election Commission, which then made it public.
The Supreme Court’s refusal to review its decision underscores the finality of the judicial stance on the electoral bond scheme, affirming the discontinuation of anonymous political funding through this method.
