New Delhi, Oct 14 The Supreme Court will hear on Thursday 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.
As per the cause list of October 15 uploaded on the apex court website, the plea would come up for hearing before a bench comprising Chief Justice Surya Kant and Justice Joymalya Bagchi.
Gandhi and several other opposition leaders marched to the apex court to file the petition on Monday.
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 Gandhi 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 Gyanesh Kumar.
The city has witnessed several protests demanding the resignation of the CEC over alleged irregularities in the SIR of the electoral rolls.
Besides Gandhi, 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.
The petition has sought direction to the poll panel to place on record the complete files, agendas, minutes, notings and objections recorded by the Election Commissioners in respect of each of the “disputed decisions” relating to the SIR of electoral rolls, together with the relevant ECINET (Election Commission Information Network) and ERONET (Electoral Roll Officers’ Network) access logs and the complete files recording the decision on June 24, 2025, to commence the SIR exercise across the country.
It has sought a direction to examine whether the disputed decisions relating to the SIR were taken in compliance with Article 324 of the Constitution, Section 18 of the Chief Election Commissioner and Other Election Commissioners (Appointment, Conditions of Service and Term of Office) Act, 2023, and the law declared by the apex court.
Article 324 vests the superintendence, direction and control of the preparation of electoral rolls and the conduct of elections in the Election Commission.
The plea said if any of the decisions were taken without lawful authority, it must be quashed.
The plea sought a direction for publishing, booth-wise, the names of all electors deleted during the SIR, the reasons for each deletion and a breakdown of deletions by gender and age, and to provide an effective and functional mechanism to restore the names of electors found eligible for inclusion in the voter list.
(PTI News)
