New Delhi, 15 October (H.S.): The Supreme Court of India has issued a notice to the Election Commission of India on a petition filed by 11 leaders of the INDIA bloc, including Leader of the Opposition in the Lok Sabha Rahul Gandhi, challenging the Special Intensive Revision (SIR) of electoral rolls. The notice was ordered by a Bench headed by Chief Justice of India Surya Kant.

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

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

Before filing the petition, INDIA bloc leaders held a “Loktantra March” in New Delhi and marched towards the Supreme Court to protest against the SIR exercise.

---------------

Hindusthan Samachar / Jun Sarkar