SC flags over 10 defects in Rahul's plea against CEC Gyanesh Kumar
NEW DELHI: Supreme Court registry Monday flagged over 10 defects in a petition filed by the Rahul Gandhi-led INDIA bloc against CEC Gyanesh Kumar over alleged large-scale voter deletions and irregularities in the special intensive revision of electoral rolls.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, news agency PTI reported citing sources.The registry also flagged illegible or missing pages in the petition, sources told PTI. It further pointed out a shortfall of over Rs 200 in the court fee.Earlier in the day, Rahul and several other opposition leaders marched to the Supreme Court to file the petition.The INDIA bloc leaders, led by Rahul Gandhi and joined by thousands of supporters, sought scrutiny of the
Election Commission
's functioning, measures to prevent CEC Gyanesh Kumar from taking decisions "unilaterally", alleged "arbitrary" voter deletions during SIR, and the system governing the use and deployment of electronic voting machines (EVMs).
The petitioners included Congress chief Mallikarjun Kharge, TMC's Saugata Roy, Samajwadi Party's Akhilesh Yadav, RJD's Tejashwi Yadav, 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 SIR without challenging its legality. They also called for eligible voters to be included in the electoral rolls of Punjab and other poll-bound states.After the CJI declined to meet the opposition delegation, Rahul said, "We respect CJI and SC. We are quite happy he has given us a path forward. To tell us we can file a petition is a path forward."The petition also sought the formation of an independent committee headed by a retired Supreme Court judge and assisted by technical experts and other eminent citizens. The panel would be tasked with conducting an independent audit, within a fixed timeframe, of deletions and changes made to electoral rolls during SIR.The plea further requested the court to set up a panel to "examine integrity of electoral-roll databases and SIR rollout".