The Supreme Court on Thursday, October 15, issued notice to the Election Commission of India on a petition filed by Leader of Opposition Rahul Gandhi and several INDIA bloc leaders alleging large-scale voter deletions and irregularities in the ongoing Special Intensive Revision (SIR) of electoral rolls. A Bench of Chief Justice Surya Kant and Justice Joymalya Bagchi tagged the plea with the cases on SIR already pending before the court, while making it clear that issuing notice was not a finding against anyone.
The hearing came three days after opposition leaders marched to the Supreme Court in Delhi to file the petition, and the Bench had some pointed words about that too.
What the court ordered
The Bench sought responses from the Election Commission, Chief Election Commissioner Gyanesh Kumar and Election Commissioners Sukhbir Singh Sandhu and Vivek Joshi. Instead of hearing the opposition's plea as a separate case, the court attached it to the batch of petitions already challenging the validity of the SIR exercise in various states.
"We are issuing notice and tagging it with the matters already pending," the Bench said, adding that "issuing notice does not mean that we are condemning anything."
The court also issued notice to Rahul Gandhi, Samajwadi Party chief Akhilesh Yadav and others on a separate plea filed against their march to the Supreme Court. In addition, it sought replies from the Centre on Election Commission-related petitions filed by leaders including AIMIM chief Asaduddin Owaisi, and agreed to examine a plea challenging the de-notification of Jantar Mantar as a designated protest site.
"Nobody can browbeat judiciary"
The most quoted moment of the hearing came when the Bench referred to the conduct of one of the petitioners, without naming him. "We would like to ask one of the petitioners about his conduct," the court said, indicating that it would take this up at the next hearing. "Nobody can browbeat judiciary. We are not sitting in ivory towers," the Bench remarked.
Some lawyers had referred to the opposition's march during the proceedings. The court did not grant any interim relief on Thursday, and no date for the next hearing was immediately reported.
Who filed the petition
The petition is one of the broadest joint legal moves by the opposition in recent years. Apart from Rahul Gandhi, it has been filed by leaders from across the INDIA bloc:
| Congress | Rahul Gandhi, Mallikarjun Kharge |
| Samajwadi Party | Akhilesh Yadav |
| Trinamool Congress | Saugata Roy |
| RJD | Tejashwi Prasad Yadav |
| Shiv Sena (UBT) | Sanjay Raut |
| NCP (SP) | Supriya Sule |
| CPI(M) / CPI | MA Baby / D Raja |
| JMM / IUML | Mahua Majhi / Mohammed Basheer |
Background: why SIR has become a flashpoint
The Special Intensive Revision is the Election Commission's exercise to clean up and re-verify voter lists, under which voters are asked to confirm their details and names found ineligible are removed. The Commission says it is necessary to remove dead, duplicate and shifted voters. Opposition parties argue that the process has led to large numbers of genuine voters being deleted, especially among the poor, migrants and minorities, and that it has been rushed.
The controversy intensified after a newspaper report alleged that the CEC took several SIR-related decisions on his own despite objections from the two Election Commissioners. Since then, Delhi has seen a series of protests demanding Gyanesh Kumar's resignation, and the opposition has used the slogan "vote chori" in its campaign. The Kerala Assembly has also passed a resolution seeking the CEC's removal.
On Monday, October 12, INDIA bloc leaders led a "March for Democracy" to the Supreme Court to file their petition. Delhi Police had earlier detained several protesters over the weekend under prohibitory orders, and separate petitions alleging that lawyers and journalists were among those detained have also reached the court.
Contempt matter over Metro shutdown
The same Bench also heard a contempt matter linked to its earlier direction that Delhi Metro and train services should not be completely shut down ahead of an October 10 protest. Solicitor General Tushar Mehta told the court that an unconditional apology tendered by Union Home Secretary Govind Mohan did not mean the authorities' actions could not be defended. The Bench said it was not taking note of media reports about the apologies.
What it means for voters
For ordinary voters, the immediate takeaway is that the SIR exercise continues for now, as the court has not paused it. With the opposition's plea now clubbed with the main SIR challenges, the eventual verdict in this batch of cases will decide how the revision is carried out across states, including the safeguards for people whose names are removed.
If you are worried about your own entry, you can check your name on the Election Commission's voter services portal or the Voter Helpline app using your EPIC number, and file a claim through Form 6 if your name is missing.
What happens next
The Election Commission and the three commissioners will now have to file their replies. When the matter comes up again, the court is expected to hear the petitioners along with the pending SIR cases and also take up the question it raised about one petitioner's conduct. Politically, the opposition is likely to keep up its campaign on the streets and in Parliament, while the Commission's formal stand will now come on record through its reply in court.
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