The Supreme Court on Thursday issued notices to the Election Commission of India (ECI) and senior election officials on a petition filed by Congress leader Rahul Gandhi and other INDIA bloc leaders alleging large-scale voter deletions and irregularities during the poll panel's Special Intensive Revision (SIR) of electoral rolls.
A bench comprising Chief Justice of India Surya Kant and Justice Joymalya Bagchi sought responses from Chief Election Commissioner Gyanesh Kumar and Election Commissioners Sukhbir Singh Sandhu and Vivek Joshi. The matter will be tagged with related pending cases.
Amidst the hearing, the bench questioned the conduct of one of13 petitioners challenging the ECI's SIR exercise.
Then lawyers referred to Gandhi’s march to the Supreme Court, the bench observed, “Nobody can browbeat judiciary. We are not sitting in ivory towers.”
“We would like to ask one of the petitioners about his conduct on the next date of hearing,” the Chief Justice said while issuing notice on a separate plea challenging the Opposition leaders’ march to the apex court.
Delhi has been witnessing protests by opposition parties and CJP demanding the resignation of CEC Gyanesh Kumar over alleged voter irregularities in the revision of electoral rolls.
The petition was filed on October 12 by Gandhi and other INDIA bloc leaders, challenging decisions taken by the ECI in connection with the SIR of electoral rolls. Subsequently, on October 13 petiton was registered by Supreme Court Registry after initial procedural defects were addressed.
The petitioners include Congress president Mallikarjun Kharge, Samajwadi Party chief Akhilesh Yadav, RJD leader Tejashwi Prasad Yadav, NCP (SP) leader Supriya Sule and Shiv Sena (UBT) leader Sanjay Raut, among others.
The plea seeks judicial scrutiny of whether the ECI’s decisions comply with Article 324 of the Constitution, the 2023 law governing the Election Commission and the Supreme Court’s ruling in T.N. Seshan vs Union of India.
Among the reliefs sought, the petition asks the court to ensure that no voter is deleted from the electoral rolls without prior notice and a reasonable opportunity to be heard. It also seeks the publication of booth-wise lists of deleted voters, including the reasons for deletion and demographic details.
The allegations of voter deletions and irregularities are part of the petition and have not been established by the court.
The contempt case relates to the alleged violation of the Supreme Court’s direction that there should be no “complete prohibition” on Metro and train services in Delhi following the October 10 protest called by the Cockroach Janta Party (CJP).
The apex court also agreed to examine a separate plea challenging the de-notification of Jantar Mantar as a designated protest site.