The Supreme Court registry flagged more than 10 defects in the INDIA bloc’s petition against CEC Gyanesh Kumar.
Led by Rahul Gandhi, opposition leaders have sought safeguards against alleged unilateral decisions by the Election Commission.
The plea seeks an independent audit of electoral-roll changes by a committee headed by a retired Supreme Court judge.
The Supreme Court registry on Monday flagged more than 10 defects in a petition filed by Rahul Gandhi-led INDIA bloc leaders against Chief Election Commissioner (CEC) Gyanesh Kumar over alleged large-scale voter deletions and irregularities in the Special Intensive Revision (SIR) of electoral rolls, PTI reported, citing sources.
The registry asked the lawyer who filed the petition to submit a legible copy of the identity card of Congress president Mallikarjun Kharge, one of the co-petitioners. It also pointed out illegible or missing pages in the plea and a shortfall of more than Rs 200 in the court fee, the sources said.
INDIA Bloc Seeks Action Over Alleged Voter Deletions
Earlier on Monday, Rahul Gandhi and several opposition leaders marched to the Supreme Court to file the petition, seeking scrutiny of the Election Commission’s functioning and measures to prevent the CEC from taking decisions “unilaterally”.
The plea raised concerns over alleged “arbitrary” voter deletions during the SIR exercise and sought changes to the system governing the use and deployment of electronic voting machines (EVMs).
The petitioners included Kharge, Trinamool Congress leader Saugata Roy, Samajwadi Party chief Akhilesh Yadav, RJD leader Tejashwi Yadav, Shiv Sena (UBT) MP Sanjay Raut, CPI(M) general secretary M A Baby, CPI general secretary D Raja, JMM leader Mahua Majhi, NCP (SP) MP Supriya Sule and IUML leader E T Mohammed Basheer.
The opposition leaders sought a suspension of the SIR exercise without challenging its legality. They also called for eligible voters to be included in the electoral rolls of Punjab and other poll-bound states.
Plea Seeks Independent Audit Of Electoral Rolls
The petition sought the formation of an independent committee headed by a retired Supreme Court judge and assisted by technical experts and other eminent citizens. The proposed panel would conduct an independent audit, within a fixed timeframe, of deletions and changes made to electoral rolls during the SIR exercise.
The plea also requested a panel to “examine integrity of electoral-roll databases and SIR rollout”.
After Chief Justice of India Surya Kant declined to meet the opposition delegation, Rahul Gandhi said the leaders respected the judiciary and welcomed the option of approaching the court through a petition.
“We respect CJI and SC. We are quite happy he has given us a path forward. To tell us we can file a petition is a path forward,” Rahul said.
