In the three-page response submitted to the court on Thursday, the ECP said that it had asked the ministry of interior, NACTA and others to submit a report on the involvement of TLP in anti-state activites.

The ECP added that the reports said that the TLP was not involved in any anti-state or terrorism activities.

The reply also explains that the ECP tasked a scrutiny committee to look into the party’s funds in keeping with the court judgement.

The scrutiny of TLP’s assets and liabilities showed the commission funding of just over Rs1.5 million. The ECP described the money as ‘peanuts’ and said that the funds could have been suppressed by the party but it did not, so it cannot be considered evidence of prohibited foreign funding.

The Commission’s reply also addressed the matter of party funding laws being referred to as ‘cosmetic’ by the body’s DG law, to which the court had taken exception.

“The Election Commission should disabuse itself that constitutional and legal provisions are cosmetic,” the judgement had said.

The ECP said that it does not subscribe to the view of laws being described as ‘cosmetic’ by its representative and shall always act as a constitutional forum.

The Faizabad sit-in case had been taken up by the SC after a long gap in October this year. However, multiple petitioners including the ECP and the Intelligence Bureau had asked to withdraw their review petitions in the case.