A day after Leader of Opposition Rahul Gandhi and INDIA bloc leaders marched to the Supreme Court, the apex court on Monday agreed to take up their joint petition challenging the Special Intensive Revision of electoral rolls and the preventive detentions around Jantar Mantar.
A bench led by Chief Justice Surya Kant issued notice to the Centre and Delhi Police, seeking explanation for shutting 45 metro stations, imposing Section 163 of BNSS across central Delhi, and snapping internet in pockets on October 11 when CJP and Opposition had called protests demanding resignation of CEC Gyanesh Kumar.
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The petition, argued by senior advocates Kapil Sibal and Abhishek Singhvi, contends that SIR in Delhi has become an exclusion exercise - 47.5 lakh electors marked uncollectable, 33 lakh served notices, many for logical discrepancies that are often clerical errors of 2002 rolls.
The petition also flags what Gandhi called turning approver offer to CEC and midnight detentions of students and MPs. CJI in his letter to Gandhi earlier had spoken of separation of powers and judicial propriety, saying meeting to discuss pending cases would contravene basic structure. Yet court also reaffirmed it will protect fundamental rights at all hours.
For government, the case is inconvenient. SIR was meant to clean rolls before Assembly polls. But with 60% of notices disposed in 12 days after months of delay, questions arise on due process. CEO Delhi said 20 lakh of 33 lakh notices resolved, with BLOs now doing house-to-house verification after procedure was simplified on September 26.
BJP calls it pure theatrics. Shivraj Singh Chouhan said Congress blames EC for its losses. But optics of Opposition unity - from Mamata Banerjee to Akhilesh Yadav to Tejashwi Yadav on same road - gives SIR a national political salience beyond technical exercise.
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Constitutionally, court will have to balance two claims: EC's plenary power to revise rolls under Article 324, and citizen's right to not be disenfranchised by faulty data and to protest under Article 19.
If court lays down guidelines on metro closures and Jantar Mantar denotification, it will redefine protest jurisprudence for Lutyens Delhi.
Tags: #SupremeCourt #SIR #OppositionPlea #RahulGandhi #JantarMantar #CJI #GyaneshKumar #ElectoralRolls #DelhiPolice #Article 19