By: Soham Shah
March 19 2024
No, CJI Chandrachud did not walk away during Solicitor General’s arguments on electoral bonds
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Post by Ajeet Bharti claiming CJI Chandrachud and other judges walked away while SG Tushar Mehta was speaking. (Source:X/Modified by Logically Facts)
Fact-Check
The Verdict False
The full video shows that Chief Justice of India, DY Chandrachud, simply adjusted his position in his chair and did not stand up or exit the room.
Claim ID 64bc322c
What is the claim?
Multiple social media users have circulated a claim stating that the Chief Justice of India (CJI), Dhananjaya Y. Chandrachud, along with other judges, vacated their seats during a session while the Solicitor General of India (SG), Tushar Mehta, was making oral submissions regarding the State Bank of India’s (SBI) failure to adhere to the Supreme Court’s order on disclosing details related to electoral bonds.
Several social media users shared this claim, including Ajeet Bharti, who is known for disseminating misinformation and promoting hate speech. These individuals criticized Chief Justice Chandrachud and his fellow judges, demanding punitive measures against them. Several users also accused the CJI of ‘running away’ to ‘avoid more truths.’ While Bharti has since deleted his post, archived versions of his and other such posts can be accessed here, here, and here.
Social media posts claimed that CJI Chandrachud and other judges had walked away while SG Tushar Mehta was speaking. (Source: X/Modified by Logically Facts)
However, we found that this claim is false. CJI Chandrachud did not get up and walk away during SG Mehta's oral submissions.
What is the truth?
We located the livestream of the hearing on the official YouTube channel of the Supreme Court of India, broadcasted on March 18, 2024.
The specific moment discussed in social media posts occurs at the 27:00 timestamp. At this point, SG Mehta is discussing the implications of the Supreme Court's judgment on electoral bonds. CJI Chandrachud turns to confer with his fellow judges and remarks, “Alright, we’ll... [inaudible] the order.” He then repositions himself in his chair and attempts to dictate the order, which is where the viral clips end, to make it seem that the CJI gets up and leaves at this point. The original footage shows that he continues sitting but is unable to dictate the order as he gets interrupted by other attorneys.
The following frames show CJI Chandrachud engaging in a conversation with Senior Advocate Mukul Rohatgi. The hearing eventually ended over 20 minutes after the point where CJI Chandrachud adjusted himself in his seat, with him dictating the order in the court.
After finally getting up from his seat, at the 47:27 timestamp in the YouTube video at the end of the hearing, we also see CJI Chandrachud folding his hands in a namaskar, a sign of respect, before leaving the court. SG Mehta and other attorneys reciprocated the gesture before the end of the video as well.
Chief Justice of India DY Chandrachud folding his hands in respect before leaving the court. (Source: Screengrab/YouTube)
This evidence indicates that neither CJI Chandrachud nor the other judges exited the session during SG Mehta's submission and stayed till the completion of the hearing and the dictation of the order.
Electoral bonds in focus in India
This claim is being shared in the backdrop of the Supreme Court's verdict on February 15, 2024, which declared the electoral bond scheme—initiated by the government led by Prime Minister Narendra Modi—unconstitutional.
The court also mandated the SBI to disclose comprehensive details of donations to political parties via these bonds from April 12, 2019, to March 6, 2024, to the Election Commission of India (ECI), which was then required to publish this information. On March 12, 2024, the SBI provided what the court said was "selective and incomplete" information to the ECI, which subsequently published the available details on March 14, 2024.
The court session under scrutiny was held on March 18, 2024, as a follow-up to the SBI’s initial disclosure, specifically its omission of the electoral bonds' alpha-numeric identifiers, contrary to the Supreme Court’s instructions. The court criticized the SBI’s failure to comply and ordered it to submit the remaining information.
In the wake of this situation, there has been a surge in misinformation regarding electoral bonds and political donations. Logically Facts has debunked some of the viral posts here and here.
The verdict
Based on comprehensive video evidence, the claim that Chief Justice Chandrachud and other judges walked out of the court session while Solicitor General Mehta was speaking is false.