Supreme Court set to hear INDIA bloc petition against voter roll revision today

A Supreme Court bench led by Chief Justice of India Surya Kant is expected on Tuesday to hear a writ petition from opposition leaders challenging the Election Commission's Special Intensive Revision (SIR) of electoral rolls. Reports say the plea will be heard along with other pending cases about the SIR and the Commission.

Lok Sabha Leader of Opposition Rahul Gandhi and Congress president Mallikarjun Kharge filed the petition on Monday. Nine other INDIA bloc leaders joined them: Saugata Roy, Akhilesh Yadav, Tejashwi Yadav, Supriya Sule, Sanjay Raut, D Raja, Mahua Majhi, M A Baby and E T Mohammed Basheer. It names the Election Commission, Chief Election Commissioner Gyanesh Kumar and Election Commissioners Sukhbir Singh Sandhu and Vivek Joshi as respondents.

What the petition asks for

According to reports on the filing, the petitioners allege large-scale irregularities in the revision and the deletion of about 13 crore names from the rolls. They want the exercise suspended in all states. They also want a committee headed by a retired Supreme Court judge to audit the deletions, and every deleted name published booth by booth with the reason for its removal.

The plea also asks the court to make sure no voter is struck off without notice and a hearing, and to let eligible people in Punjab and other states due to vote apply for inclusion until the last permitted date. The Election Commission has denied any wrongdoing. Al Jazeera reported that the Commission says the revision is meant to clear duplicate, dead and fraudulent entries.

March stopped short of the court

Opposition MPs, party workers and activists set out on Monday afternoon to march to the Supreme Court and demand the Chief Election Commissioner's resignation. Delhi Police stopped them at a barricade on Bhagwan Das Road, close to the court. A small delegation was then allowed to complete the filing. Over the weekend, police had detained thousands of protesters and blocked access to central Delhi, and several Delhi Metro stations were shut on Monday.

Speaking at a press conference before the march, Gandhi accused the government of shielding the CEC and said the opposition would "not back down". On Sunday, the Chief Justice had turned down a request to meet opposition leaders about their concerns. He said the issue was already before the court and advised them to file a formal petition.

Delhi Chief Minister Rekha Gupta criticised the opposition in a post on X. She argued that clean voter lists are essential to free and fair elections, and pointed to an open letter from 124 retired civil servants defending the Commission.

Why it matters

The voter list decides who can vote, so a dispute over large-scale deletions affects every coming election. The Supreme Court can decide whether to pause the exercise, call for records from the Commission or let the revision go ahead. Whatever it decides could shape the rolls used in the next round of state polls.