The Supreme Court registry flags 14 procedural “defects” in a joint petition filed by Congress leader Rahul Gandhi and other Opposition figures challenging alleged electoral irregularities and the Election Commission’s Special Intensive Revision (SIR) of electoral rolls. The registry identifies issues including a shortfall of Rs 220 in court fees, missing authorisations, unclear or incomplete document copies, and formatting problems such as small fonts.
The petition was submitted while thousands of protesters gather in central Delhi and march toward the Supreme Court, with INDIA bloc leaders taking part. The petition targets the Election Commission of India and the Chief Election Commissioner, Gyanesh Kumar, along with other commissioners including Sukhbir Singh Sandhu and Vivek Joshi. The registry also notes other shortcomings, such as missing “vakalatnamas” (written authorisations), an unclear photocopy of Congress president Mallikarjun Kharge’s identity card, and inconsistencies in pages, including documents in regional languages.
Until the identified defects are rectified, the matter cannot be listed for a hearing. The plea seeks multiple forms of relief related to production of SIR records, scrutiny of constitutional validity, action against alleged responsible officials, and an independent audit, among other requests.
