A Constitution bench of five judges headed by the country’s Chief Justice Justice DY Chandrachud will today hear the Election Commission’s application in which the Commission has demanded the return of two sealed envelopes handed over on previous dates.
The Commission has said in its petition that it had submitted two sealed envelopes of documents related to electoral bonds before the apex court as per the orders passed on April 12, 2019 and November 2, 2023, the same should be returned.
Hearing this matter, the apex court has approved the return of both the envelopes to the Commission.
The court has said in its order that the Supreme Court Registry should first scan the documents in those envelopes and keep them in its records, and then return the original copy to the Election Commission. Along with this, the court has said that the Commission should also upload those documents on the website by March 17.
The Election Commission had told the top court that since it has not retained any copy of those documents, the sealed copies of the documents filed by it should be returned to it so that it can be uploaded on its website as per the court’s March 11 order. Can upload on.
Let us inform that during the hearing on March 11, 2024, the Supreme Court had ordered the State Bank of India to disclose the electoral bond data by March 12 and hand it over to the Election Commission. The court had ordered the Commission to upload the information related to the electoral bonds received from the State Bank on its website by March 15.
These bonds contain information about donations received by political parties. After this, the Election Commission has uploaded the list of donors on its website on March 14.
According to the document submitted by State Bank of India and uploaded by the Election Commission, between April 1, 2019 and February 15, 2024, donors purchased a total of 22,217 electoral bonds, of which 22,030 bonds were encashed.
In a compliance affidavit filed in the top court, SBI had said that as per the court’s direction, it has provided details of the electoral bonds to the Election Commission of India before the close of business on March 12.