New Delhi. When the issue of posts shared on social media with the intention of ’embarrassing’ the Supreme Court following its orders on electoral bond matters was raised, the apex court said that as an institution ‘we have very broad shoulders’. Chief Justice DY Chandrachud, who is heading the five-judge Constitution bench hearing the electoral bond case, said that when a court pronounces a judgment, that judgment becomes the property of the nation for discussion.
The bench said that the top court’s concern is only about implementing the directions given in its February 15 judgment. In a historic verdict on February 15, the Constitution Bench had quashed the Centre’s electoral bond scheme, terming it ‘unconstitutional’ and requiring the Election Commission to disclose the donors, amounts given as donations and recipients by March 13. Was ordered to do.
He had directed that State Bank of India (SBI) should submit the details of electoral bonds purchased from April 12, 2019 till date to the Election Commission. In a major blow to SBI, the court had on March 11 rejected its plea seeking extension of deadline for disclosing information related to electoral bonds and asked it what steps it had taken to comply with the court’s direction.
The court on Monday again reprimanded SBI and asked it not to adopt an arbitrary attitude and to ‘fully disclose’ all the information related to the electoral bond scheme by March 21. Solicitor General Tushar Mehta said during the hearing on Monday, “I want to share something and I am watching this thing happening outside the court with great pain. Honorable judges work in isolation. You work in isolation. I am not saying this in a negative context, but the things that we come to know here, are never known to the honorable judges.”
He said the Centre’s argument was that it wanted to curb black money and the apex court gave its verdict on the matter. He said, “Every one of us knows that through the decision and directions of the court, the honorable judges did not try to target anyone, but an attempt to target has started at some other level, it is not at the government level. .”
Mehta said that during the hearing on SBI’s application on March 11, the court clarified the situation, “but the most serious things happened after that. The people present in the court started giving press interviews to deliberately embarrass the court and there is no level playing field in this game. From this side, no one can refute it. Neither the government can do this, nor SBI can do this. No one else can do this.”
He said, “Any kind of posts are being shared by distorting the facts and on the basis of other data. I know that the honorable judge cannot control these.” The Chief Justice said that the government is only concerned about implementing the directions issued in the judgment. He said, “As judges we take decisions as per the Constitution. We operate in accordance with the rule of law. “We also become the subject of comments on social media and in the press but of course, as an organization we have a very broad shoulder.”
Justice Chandrachud said, “Our court has to play an institutional role in a politics that is governed by the Constitution and the rule of law. This is our only work.” He said that once the court pronounces the verdict, this decision becomes the property of the country which can be debated. Mehta said his aim was to inform the apex court that “something else was going on” which was neither the intention of the court nor the intention of the scheme.
,
Tags: DY Chandrachud, Electoral Bond, Supreme Court
FIRST PUBLISHED: March 18, 2024, 22:27 IST