Supreme Court issues notice to Election Commission on INDIA bloc plea against SIR

What the court did

The Supreme Court on Thursday, October 15, issued notice to the Election Commission of India (ECI) and Chief Election Commissioner Gyanesh Kumar on a petition by Rahul Gandhi and other INDIA bloc leaders challenging the Special Intensive Revision (SIR) of electoral rolls. The bench of Chief Justice of India Surya Kant and Justice Joymalya Bagchi tagged the petition with pending matters that challenge the SIR in various states, according to Greater Kashmir, which cited Bar & Bench.

The Sentinel and Telangana Today (IANS) list the respondents as the ECI, Kumar, and Election Commissioners Sukhbir Singh Sandhu and Vivek Joshi. The reports read give no date for the next hearing.

The plea

The plea was filed on October 12. DNA India reports it was registered on October 13 after procedural defects were addressed, and lists three prayers: a judicial examination of whether the ECI's decisions accord with Article 324 of the Constitution, a 2023 law on the Commission and an earlier Supreme Court ruling in T.N. Seshan v. Union of India; a direction that no elector be deleted without notice and a hearing; and a direction to publish booth-wise details of deleted electors, with reasons.

The reports differ on how many leaders joined Gandhi. Telangana Today and the Sentinel say 12 others, DNA India refers to 13 petitioners in all, and Greater Kashmir names 11 petitioners including Mr. Gandhi. Those named include Mallikarjun Kharge, Akhilesh Yadav, Tejashwi Prasad Yadav, Saugata Roy, Supriya Sule, MA Baby and D Raja. Greater Kashmir says the leaders marched to the Supreme Court on October 12 before filing.

What the bench said

Greater Kashmir quotes the bench as saying that issuing notice does not mean it is condemning anything. All of the reports read say the court would ask one petitioner to explain his conduct on the next date, and that the notice on his behalf would be entertained provisionally, subject to that explanation. None of them identifies the petitioner or describes the conduct in question.

Context in the reports

Greater Kashmir links the plea to protests in Delhi demanding Kumar's resignation, which followed a report in The Indian Express that he took several SIR-related decisions despite objections from the two other Election Commissioners. It also says several protesters were detained over the weekend after prohibitory orders were imposed under Section 163 of the Bharatiya Nagarik Suraksha Sanhita, and that petitions before the court allege lawyers and journalists were prevented from doing their work. The reports read carry no response from the ECI to the plea.