The Supreme Court on Thursday issued notice to the Election Commission and Chief Election Commissioner Gyanesh Kumar on the petition of Leader of Opposition in Lok Sabha Rahul Gandhi and other opposition leaders.
A bench of Chief Justice Surya Kant and Justice Joymalya Bagchi sought a response from the Election Commission and ordered the petition to be clubbed with the already pending petitions challenging the validity of the Special Intensive Revision (SIR) of the voter list.
Apart from the Election Commission, the court has also issued notice to Chief Election Commissioner Gyanesh Kumar and Election Commissioners Sukhbir Singh Sandhu and Vivek Joshi.
However, while issuing the notice, the bench also raised questions regarding the behavior of one of the petitioners.
According to Live Law, the bench said that on the next hearing it will seek answers from one of the petitioners regarding his conduct. The court did not clarify which petitioner its comments were about.
The court also made it clear that issuing the notice does not mean that it is condemning anything.
What is the demand made in the petition of Rahul Gandhi and the opposition?
Rahul Gandhi and opposition leaders had approached the Supreme Court on October 12. The petition has alleged large-scale deletion of voters' names during the SIR and alleged irregularities in the Election Commission's process.
According to news agency PTI, the petition has demanded an independent audit of the names removed or changed from the voter list during SIR. For this, a demand has been made to form an independent committee of technical experts and other eminent people under the chairmanship of a retired judge of the Supreme Court.
The petition has also sought direction to the Election Commission to present the internal records, files, minutes of meetings, objections filed and related digital records related to the SIR before the court.
Apart from this, the petitioners have demanded that the names of the people removed from the voter list should be made public booth wise and it should also be told as to why their names were removed.
A demand has also been made to release the details of the removed voters on the basis of age and gender and to make an effective system to re-add the names of eligible voters.
The petition has also sought to ensure that the name of any voter is not removed from the voter list without giving him notice and a fair opportunity to express his views. Along with this, a demand has been made to put an interim stay on the ongoing SIR process in the states till the decision on the matter is taken.
What are the questions on Gyanesh Kumar's decisions?
At the center of this controversy is the decision-making process within the Election Commission.
The petition by Rahul Gandhi and other opposition leaders has alleged that Chief Election Commissioner Gyanesh Kumar used the commission's collective powers without the knowledge, approval or consent of other election commissioners.
These allegations have intensified after an investigation by 'The Indian Express' newspaper.
The newspaper had claimed in its report based on documents that Election Commissioners Sukhbir Singh Sandhu and Vivek Joshi had formally lodged objections to some decisions and orders issued in the name of the Election Commission at least 14 times in the last 10 months. The objections of both the commissioners were related to issues like registration of new voters, deletion and re-addition of voters' names and security of voter database.
According to the report, in some cases both the election commissioners had said that decisions were taken without their knowledge. In one case, Sandhu had allegedly described the Election Commission's action as "unauthorized and illegal".
However, the Election Commission had also given clarification on some claims related to this controversy. The commission said that the letters sent by Sandhu and Joshi to the Cabinet Secretary were related to an officer posted on deputation and were not related to the policy of the commission or the matters of the IT division.
The Election Commission and BJP have earlier also rejected Rahul Gandhi and Congress's allegations of electoral irregularities and 'vote theft'.
Who are the petitioners?
Apart from Rahul Gandhi, the petitioners include Congress president Mallikarjun Kharge, Trinamool Congress' Saugata Roy, Samajwadi Party president Akhilesh Yadav, RJD leader Tejashwi Yadav, Shiv Sena (UBT) leader Sanjay Raut, CPI(M)'s MA Baby and CPI's D Raja.
Apart from these, Mahua Maji of Jharkhand Mukti Morcha (JMM), Supriya Sule of NCP (Sharadchandra Pawar) and ET Mohammad Bashir of Indian Union Muslim League are also among the petitioners.
According to Live Law, the case is named Rahul Gandhi vs Election Commission of India and will be heard along with other pending SIR petitions.
On Thursday, a second petition challenging the SIR in Maharashtra was sought to be heard simultaneously with Rahul Gandhi's petition. But the Supreme Court denied this and verbally said that it wants to look at the issues related to SIR on a state-wise basis and not as a general matter for all the states.
Hearing on 12th October march in Supreme Court also
Rahul Gandhi and many opposition leaders had taken out a march on October 12 against the functioning of the SIR and the Election Commission. After this, the petition of opposition leaders was filed in the Supreme Court.
A separate petition has also been filed in the Supreme Court regarding this march, in which a demand has been made to make guidelines to control political demonstrations around the courts and to investigate the behavior of some leaders.
During the hearing of this separate case on Thursday, the Supreme Court issued a notice and made strong remarks regarding the attempt to put pressure on the judiciary through political protests.
According to Livelaw, Chief Justice Surya Kant said that no one can put the court under pressure and the court knows what the leaders say outside and what they say in the court.
This hearing is separate from the original petition filed by Rahul Gandhi and opposition leaders challenging the SIR.
The case reached court amid protests in Delhi
There have been continuous protests in Delhi for the last few days regarding SIR and Chief Election Commissioner Gyanesh Kumar.
During these protests, separate petitions have been filed in the Supreme Court regarding detention of protesters, closure of metro stations and alleged obstruction in the work of lawyers and journalists.
During a special hearing on October 11, the Supreme Court had directed the police not to illegally detain peaceful protesters, lawyers and journalists. The court had also sought answers from the authorities regarding the closure of metro stations in Delhi.
At present, the Supreme Court has not given any decision on the allegations on the SIR petition of Rahul Gandhi and opposition leaders. The court has sought response from the Election Commission and its officials and clubbed the matter with the already pending petitions related to the SIR.
