A joint petition submitted by Congress leader Rahul Gandhi and several Opposition leaders challenging alleged electoral irregularities and the Special Intensive Revision (SIR) of electoral rolls has been flagged for 14 "defects" by the Supreme Court. These include a court fee shortfall of Rs 220, the apex court said.
The other objections include missing authorisations from nine petitioners and an unclear photocopy of Congress president Mallikarjun Kharge's identity card.
The petition was submitted on Monday as thousands of protesters gathered in central Delhi and marched towards the Supreme Court over allegations of electoral irregularities involving Chief Election Commissioner Gyanesh Kumar. As INDIA bloc leaders took part in the march, their legal representatives filed a petition against the poll panel chief over alleged "vote chori" (vote theft).
The Supreme Court registry identified several shortcomings in the filing, including missing "vakalatnamas" (written legal documents), the need for a legible copy of Kharge's identity card, and formatting issues such as "small fonts". It also flagged the absence of "coloured copies" of two documents, along with unclear text, missing pages, pages in regional languages and inconsistencies in page numbering.
Apart from Gandhi and Kharge, the petitioners include Trinamool Congress MP Saugata Roy, Akhilesh Yadav, Tejashwi Prasad Yadav, Sule, Shiv Sena (UBT) leader Sanjay Raut, D Raja, Mahua Majhi of the Jharkhand Mukti Morcha, MA Baby and Indian Union Muslim League leader ET Mohammed Basheer.
The petition identifies the Election Commission of India (ECI), Chief Election Commissioner Gyanesh Kumar and Election Commissioners Sukhbir Singh Sandhu and Vivek Joshi as respondents.
The petitioners will have to rectify the identified "defects" before the matter can be listed for a hearing before the Supreme Court. The plea seeks ten forms of relief concerning the SIR exercise and other decisions made by the Election Commission.
Among the ten demands raised by the INDIA bloc leaders are directions to produce all records concerning the SIR, scrutiny of the constitutional validity of decisions taken during the exercise, action against officials found responsible, resolution of the petitioners' grievances and an audit by an independent committee, among other reliefs.
