LoP, 9 other Opposition leaders allege wrongful deletion of 13 crore voters
Congress leader Rahul Gandhi, Samajwadi Party chief Akhilesh Yadav and others during ‘March for Democracy’ by INDIA bloc leaders, towards the Supreme Court, to file a petition against Chief Election Commissioner Gyanesh Kumar and ‘vote chori’, at Barakhamba road, in New Delhi, October 12, 2026. PTI
The Supreme Court on Thursday issued notices to the Election Commission and others on a petition filed by Congress MPs Rahul Gandhi, Mallikarjun Kharge and nine other opposition leaders over alleged large-scale irregularities and deletion of 13 crore voters during the special intensive revision (SIR) of electoral rolls.
A Bench of Chief Justice of India Surya Kant and Justice Joymalya Bagchi asked the Election Commission, Chief Election Commissioner Gyanesh Kumar and Election Commissioners Sukhbir Singh Sandhu and Vivek Joshi to respond to the petition that sought suspension of the ongoing SIR exercise.
The Bench ordered tagging of the matter with petitions already pending before it. “Issue notice. But one objection before that…. We would like to ask one of the petitioners about his conduct on the next date of hearing. Issuing notice does not mean that we are condemning anything. We are issuing notices…. But about one of the petitioners, we will definitely entertain the issue. The notice on behalf of one of the petitioners will be entertained on a provisional basis, subject to his explaining his conduct,” the CJI said.
Rahul was represented by senior counsel Kapil Sibal. The Bench also issued notice on separate petitions filed by AIMIM leader Asaduddin Owaisi and Congress leader Digvijaya Singh.
The petition filed by Rahul and other INDIA bloc leaders urged the top court to set up a committee headed by a retired Supreme Court judge and assisted by technical experts and other persons of eminence to audit SIR deletions and access to electoral roll database, and to review EVM processes against global best practices.
No deletion of voters’ names should be done without notice and hearing and eligible persons in Punjab and other poll-bound states should be allowed to seek inclusion till the last date, the petition demanded.
The petition urged the top court to examine if decisions taken by the poll panel complied with Article 324, Section 18 of the 2023 CEC Act and the 1995 TN Seshan ruling and quash any decision taken without lawful authority.
It also sought production of the Election Commission’s files, minutes, notings and objections recorded by Election Commissioners Sandhu and Joshi on disputed SIR decisions, along with ECINET and ERONET access logs as also the complete file recording the June 24, 2025, decision to launch nationwide SIR.
Other prayers in the petition included action against those responsible for breaches, including under Section 32 of the RP Act, 1950; direction that every SIR decision be taken and minuted as per Section 18 till the case was decided; online Form 6 to conform to the Registration of Electors Rules, 1960, unless the Rules were amended; and booth-wise publication of deleted names with reasons and age and gender-wise breakdown, plus a functional restoration mechanism.
The petition was filed a day after the Chief Justice of India declined to meet Rahul and Kharge for a discussion on issues relating to the SIR and ‘vote chori’ allegations against the CEC on the grounds that such a meeting would be inappropriate as the issues sought to be raised with him were pending before the Supreme Court for adjudication.
The other petitioners from the INDIA bloc are Saugata Roy (TMC), Akhilesh Yadav (Samajwadi Party), Tejashwi Yadav (RJD), Supriya Sule (NCP-SP), Sanjay Raut (Shiv Sena-UBT), D Raja (CPI), Mahua Majhi (JMM), MA Baby (CPM) and ET Mohammed Basheer (IUML).
Article_Author Satya Prakash
Courtesy : The Tribune
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