New Delhi:
Chief Justice of India (CJI) Surya Kant has refused to meet the Congress-led INDIA bloc of Opposition parties, asking them to file a petition instead, ahead of their planned march to the Supreme Court on Monday to hand over a memorandum to the CJI over alleged electoral fraud. Sources said that in his reply to the meeting request, the CJI said the issues they plan to raise are already sub judice, being heard in the Supreme Court.
The court has no authority to meet a delegation of any political party at the administrative level in this way, and its power is in fact to hear the petition and give a verdict, the CJI is learnt to have said. He also said the doors of the Supreme Court, as the top judicial body, are "open 24 hours a day for all", and it is "committed to protecting the fundamental rights of every citizen".
The march is likely to still go ahead, as part of a series of protests being held by the Opposition as well as the youth group Cockroach Janta Party (CJP) to demand the resignation of Chief Election Commissioner Gyanesh Kumar over alleged illegalities in the Special Intensive Revision of voter rolls, among other issues.
Leader of the Opposition (Lok Sabha) Rahul Gandhi has said the march is "not of a political party, but of all Indians", seeking to build wider pressure not only on the CEC but also on Prime Minister Narendra Modi's BJP-led government, which he says has benefited from the SIR. The INDIA bloc's demand charter, presented to President Droupadi Murmu last Friday, lists four demands: resignation of Gyanesh Kumar and the repeal of the 2023 law that provides legal immunity to the CEC and ECs; immediate suspension of the SIR and the restoration of all 13.3 crore voters deleted; a return to paper ballots for all elections; annulment of all Assembly elections over the last two years "in which conclusive evidence of vote chori has been presented".
Protests, meanwhile, continued on Sunday across Delhi, besides other cities including Mumbai, even as police again responded with mass detentions, just as it did on Saturday when at least 3,000 people were detained to scuttle the CJP's Jantar Mantar call.
Issues related to that crackdown -- such as police's alleged excesses, closure of Metro stations, cancellation of trains, and alleged denial of fundamental rights -- are part of a bunch of petitions in the SC listed for Tuesday next. The SC had declared the SIR legal in May, though the removal of 13.3 crore across India, or 14 per cent of the pre-SIR electorate, has meant questions continue to be asked.
The BJP had already questioned the INDIA bloc's plan to meet the CJI and submit a memorandum. BJP MP Ravi Shankar Prasad said on Saturday that CJIs do not meet political delegations as per convention. Asking the Opposition to fight cases through legal channels, he said governments are decided by elections and not by cases filed by "rejected" leaders.