India opposition bloc files petition at top court demanding halt on voter list revisions

India’s Opposition Alliance, led by Congress, filed a petition with the Supreme Court on Monday evening, seeking a suspension of the ongoing controversial voter list revisions, and urged actions against officials involved in the irregularities that allegedly favour the ruling BJP.

The petition also demands an independent audit of deletions of voter names from the official list. According to allegations, a large number of legitimate Muslim voters have been dropped from the list for being “Bangladeshi immigrants” as the Hindu nationalist BJP seeks to weaken its opposition voter base.

In total, the petition seeks ten measures regarding the Special Intensive Revision (SIR) of voter lists.

Earlier, a massive group of democracy activists and opposition Leaders, led by Congress leader Rahul Gandhi, marched towards the Supreme Court in New Delhi. Police halted the march 600 metres away from the court, but a legal team of Rahul Gandhi was allowed to proceed to submit the opposition petition.

Since Rahul Gandhi could not reach the Supreme Court before the 4:30pm deadline, the petition was filed by lawyer S Prasanna.

Besides Rahul Gandhi, Congress party chief Mallikarjun Kharge, Priyanka Gandhi, Samajwadi Party chief Akhilesh Yadav, Trinamool chief Mamata Banerjee and RJD's Tejashwi Yadav were among a host of leaders who joined the massive INDIA bloc march on Monday. On Sunday, Chief Justice of India Surya Kant had refused to meet Rahul Gandhi, stating that the matter was already under judicial considerations in separate pleas.

Following this, Opposition leaders filed a joint plea in the Supreme Court.

One of the principal demands of the Opposition is the resignation of Chief Election Commissioner Gyanesh Kumar.

NDTV accessed the details of the petition which has been labelled as “Rahul Gandhi v. Election Commission of India” on the Supreme Court website.

The points include: directive to produce all records related to the SIR, examination of the constitutional validity of SIR decisions, action against responsible officials, redressal of the petitioner's grievances, demand for an audit by an independent committee, demand for interim stay on ongoing SIR process, and directive not to delete any voter's name without notice and hearing.