Supreme Court dismisses plea for review of judgment on electoral bonds scheme

New Delhi: The Supreme Court has dismissed a petition seeking review of the February 15, 2024, Constitution bench judgment which struck down the Electoral Bonds scheme as unconstitutional for affecting the rights of citizens to know the name of donors to political parties and possible quid pro quo arrangement among them.

A bench of Chief Justice of India D Y Chandrachud, and Justices Sanjiv Khanna, B R Gavai, J B Paridwala and Manoj Misra rejected the review petition filed by advocate Mathews Nedumpara and another.

In its order, the bench said, "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".

The order was passed on September 25.

According to the SC Rules, the review petition is considered by judges inside the chambers through circulation of paper.

In the matter, the court also dismissed an application for open court hearing.

On February 15, 2024, the Supreme Court had held that Electoral bonds scheme as unconstitutional, and it had directed banks to stop issuing bonds immediately.

It had also directed the SBI to provide all the data related to it to the Election Commission for uploading on its website.

It was later revealed that electoral bonds worth about Rs 16,518 crore were encashed by the political parties.

The court's judgment had then come on a batch of petitions filed by NGO, Association for Democratic Reforms (ADR), and others.