14 March 2024 3:46 PM GMT
The Constitution Bench of the Supreme Court which decided the Electoral Bonds case will sit tomorrow at 10.30 AM to hear an application filed by the Election Commission of India.
On March 11, while directing the State Bank of India to disclose the electoral bonds data to the ECI by March 12, the Supreme Court had also directed the ECI to upload the information regarding political parties' funding through the bonds, which were submitted before the Supreme Court in sealed covers pursuant to interim orders passed on April 12, 2019, and November 2, 2023.
In the application, the ECI stated that it has not retained any copies of those documents to maintain confidentiality. Therefore, the ECI has requested the Supreme Court to return the sealed cover documents so that it can upload them on its website as per the Court's order of March 11.
ECI pointed out that in the March 11 order, the Court observed, "Copies of the statements which were filed by the ECI before this Court would be maintained in the Office of the ECI". Stating that it has not retained any copies of the documents, the ECI seeks a modification of the above observation in the order.
"...it is requested that the aforementioned portion of the Order dated 11.03.2024 passed by this Hon'ble Court in Miscellaneous Application No. 486 of 2024 [in Writ Petition (Civil) No. 880 of 2017] may be rectified/modified and the aforementioned documents/data/information so submitted by the Election Commission of India before this Hon'ble Court in sealed covers/boxes may be returned to it, to enable the Election Commission of India to comply with the directions passed by this Hon'ble Court, as contained in the Order dated 11.03.2024," the plea stated.
It may be noted that the ECI today uploaded on its website the files received from the State Bank of India regarding the data of purchasers of the electoral bonds and the encashment by the political parties.
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