A five-judge Bench of the Supreme Court headed by Chief Justice of India D. Y. Chandrachud is scheduled on March 15 to hear an application filed by the Election Commission of India (ECI) seeking the return of electoral bonds’ documents handed over to the apex court in sealed cover/sealed boxes on two occasions.
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The ECI, represented by advocate Amit Sharma, said the documents were given to the court confidentially in compliance with two orders on April 12, 2019 and November 2, 2023.
The application referred to a direction issued on March 11 by the Bench in its order that the “copies of the statements which were filed by the ECI before this court would be maintained in the office of the ECI”.
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The ECI said it had handed over to the apex court a sealed cover, which contained 106 sealed envelopes, and then sealed boxes containing a total of 523 sealed envelopes in two tranches in pursuance of the judicial orders of April 2019 and November 2023.
The ECI said it had not retained copies of these documents. “The Election Commission of India forwarded the documents received by it to this court in sealed covers/boxes without retaining any copies. Documents/data/information submitted by the Election Commission of India to this court in sealed covers/boxes may be returned to it in order to enable the Election Commission of India to comply with the directions passed by the court on March 11, 2024,” the application said.
March 11 had seen the five-judge Bench refuse State Bank of India an extension of time till June 30 to disclose the electoral bonds’ purchase and encashment details to the ECI. The ECI was directed to publish the information handed over by the SBI on its official website by March 15.
A statement released by the ECI on March 14 said the top poll body has “uploaded the data on electoral bonds on its website as received from SBI on ‘as is where is basis’ in furtherance of disclosure and transparency.
