CJI asks petitioners to fix defects
NEW DELHI: Chief Justice of India Surya Kant on Tuesday asked petitioners in cases related to protests against the special intensive revision (SIR) of electoral rolls in Delhi to ensure that defects in their pleas are rectified.He assured them that the petitions would be listed for hearing.The direction came a day after the Supreme Court registry flagged 14 defects in a petition filed by the INDIA bloc against CEC Gyanesh Kumar over alleged large-scale voter deletions and irregularities during the SIR exercise.According to news agency PTI, the registry asked the lawyer who filed the petition to submit a clear copy of the identity card of Congress chief and leader of opposition in the Rajya Sabha Mallikarjun Kharge, one of the co-petitioners.It also flagged illegible or missing pages and pointed out a shortfall of Rs 220 in the court fee.Reacting to the registry's observations, Shiv Sena (UBT) MP Sanjay Raut said the errors could be corrected and that the opposition bloc remained determined to hold the constitutional body accountable."There might be some errors in it, which we will now rectify and repair," Raut told news agency ANI, referring to the technical discrepancies.
He also confirmed that he was among the petitioners, saying, "All the parties that were involved in yesterday's protest are all petitioners."On Monday, Rahul and several opposition leaders marched to the Supreme Court to file the petition. The INDIA bloc sought scrutiny of the
Election Commission's functioning and measures to prevent CEC Gyanesh Kumar from taking decisions "unilaterally".The petition also raised concerns over alleged "arbitrary" voter deletions during the SIR exercise and the system governing the use and deployment of electronic voting machines (EVMs).Among the petitioners were Congress chief Mallikarjun Kharge, TMC's Saugata Roy, Samajwadi Party supremo Akhilesh Yadav, RJD leader Tejashwi Yadav, Shiv Sena (UBT)'s Sanjay Raut, CPM's M A Baby, CPI's D Raja, JMM's Mahua Majhi, NCP(SP)'s Supriya Sule and IUML's E T Mohammed Basheer.The opposition leaders sought a suspension of the SIR exercise without challenging its legality. They also called for eligible voters to be included in the electoral rolls of Punjab and other poll-bound states.