The Supreme Court has dismissed a petition seeking a review of the Constitution Bench's February 15 judgment which struck down the electoral bonds scheme as unconstitutional.
A five-judge bench of the top court, led by the Chief Justice of India (CJI) DY Chandrachud and also comprising Justices Sanjiv Khanna, B R Gavai, JB Paridwala and Manoj Misra, dismissed the review petition filed by advocate Mathews Nedumpara and another person.
"Having perused the review petitions, there is no error apparent on the face of the record. There is no case for review under Order XLVII Rule 1 of the Supreme Court Rules 2013. The review petitions are, therefore, dismissed," the top court observed.
The order, which was passed by the apex court on September 25, was uploaded on Saturday on the Supreme Court website.
On February 15, in a landmark judgement, the Supreme Court had held that the electoral bonds scheme has to be struck down as unconstitutional, and directed banks to stop issuing bonds immediately.
"The Union has been unable to establish that the measure adopted in clause 7(4)(1) of the electoral scheme is the least restrictive measure," a five-judge bench of the top court, headed by the CJI Chandrachud, said in the order.
The top court also said that the amendments to the Income Tax Act provision and Section 29C of the Representation of Peoples (RP) Act are declared to be ultra vires.
The CJI, while reading out the verdict, had said that the amendment to the Companies Act (allowing blanket corporate political funding) is unconstitutional.
The apex court, in its verdict on February 15, had directed the SBI to stop issuing electoral bonds immediately and also should disclose and submit all the details to the Election Commission by March 6.
"The SBI (State Bank of India) must disclose each encashment to the EC within three weeks," the apex court said and added that the EC shall publish details within one weeks.
The EC will make all donations public within one week of the receipt of the information. All electoral bonds within the 15-day validity period shall be returned by political parties to the purchasers, the top court had said, in its verdict on February 15.
"Lack of privacy of political affiliation would be catastrophic. It can be used to disenfranchise voters. Right to informational privacy extends to financial contributions to political parties," the bench of the apex court had said.
The apex court had reserved the case on November 2023.
The electoral bonds scheme was challenged by the Association for Democratic Reforms (ADR), the Communist Party of India (Marxist), Congress leader Jaya Thakur and Spandan Biswal.