New Delhi, 12 October (H.S.): Leader of the Opposition in the Lok Sabha Rahul Gandhi and 10 other leaders of the INDIA bloc on Monday filed a petition in the Supreme Court challenging the ongoing Special Intensive Revision (SIR) of electoral rolls. The petition may also be taken up for hearing on Tuesday, October 13, when the apex court is scheduled to hear other petitions concerning the SIR process.

Besides Rahul Gandhi, the prominent INDIA bloc leaders who have filed the petition include Congress president Mallikarjun Kharge; Akhilesh Yadav of the Samajwadi Party (SP); Tejashwi Prasad Yadav of the Rashtriya Janata Dal (RJD); Saugata Roy of the Trinamool Congress (TMC); Sanjay Raut of the Shiv Sena (Uddhav Balasaheb Thackeray); M. A. Baby of the Communist Party of India (Marxist) (CPI(M)); D. Raja of the Communist Party of India (CPI); Mahua Manjhi of the Jharkhand Mukti Morcha (JMM); Supriya Sule of the Nationalist Congress Party (Sharadchandra Pawar); and E. T. Mohammed Basheer of the Indian Union Muslim League (IUML).

The petition, filed through senior advocate S. Prasanna, seeks the constitution of an independent committee to examine the Election Commission’s internal decision-making process concerning the SIR exercise. It also calls for a comprehensive review of the online voter registration system, including the ECINet portal, and requests that the Election Commission be directed to produce official records and internal notings relating to the process.

Before filing the petition, INDIA bloc leaders took out a “Democracy March” in Delhi and marched towards the Supreme Court.

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Hindusthan Samachar / Jun Sarkar