The Supreme Court will hear today (October 15) a plea filed by Congress leader Rahul Gandhi and several other Opposition leaders over alleged large-scale voter deletions and irregularities in the Special Intensive Revision (SIR) of electoral rolls.
The plea will come up for hearing before a Bench comprising Chief Justice Surya Kant and Justice Joymalya Bagchi.
Rahul and several other opposition leaders marched to the apex court to file the petition on Monday.
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The plea has sought the constitution of an independent committee headed by a retired apex court judge and assisted by technical experts and other citizens of eminence, to conduct within a fixed time an independent audit of deletions and modifications made during SIR.
Besides the plea filed by Rahul and others, the Bench would also hear separate petitions related to protests, closure of metro stations and disruptions in train services ahead of the October 10 agitation in Delhi against Chief Election Commissioner (CEC) Gyanesh Kumar.
Delhi has witnessed several protests demanding the resignation of the CEC over alleged irregularities in the SIR of the electoral rolls.
Besides Rahul, Congress president and Leader of Opposition in Rajya Sabha Mallikarjun Kharge, TMC MP Saugata Roy, Samajwadi Party chief Akhilesh Yadav, Rashtriya Janata Dal leader Tejashwi Prasad Yadav, Nationalist Congress Party (Sharad Pawar) leader Supriya Sule, Shiv Sena-UBT leader Sanjay Raut, Communist Party of India’s D Raja, and some other leaders are co-petitioners in the plea.
The plea has sought a direction to ensure that no elector is deleted from the electoral rolls without notice and a reasonable opportunity of hearing in accordance with the law, and also to ensure that eligible persons in Punjab and other states going to polls are permitted to seek inclusion in the electoral rolls until the last date permitted by law.
“Issue an interim direction suspending the ongoing Special Intensive Revision of electoral rolls across the states, pending consideration and adjudication of the issues raised in the present petition, in the interests of protecting the rights of eligible electors and preserving the integrity of the electoral process,” the plea said.
The petition has made the Election Commission of India, Chief Election Commissioner Gyanesh Kumar and Election Commissioners Sukhbir Singh Sandhu and Vivek Joshi parties in the case.
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