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SC refuses to list Maha SIR and Rahul Gandhi’s plea together
New Delhi: The Supreme Court on Thursday refused to list a petition challenging the special intensive revision (SIR) of electoral rolls in Maharashtra along with the plea filed by Leader of Opposition in the Lok Sabha Rahul Gandhi and other INDIA bloc leaders challenging the Election Commission of India’s controversial exercise, saying it will hear the matter state-wise
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New Delhi: The Supreme Court on Thursday refused to list a petition challenging the special intensive revision (SIR) of electoral rolls in Maharashtra along with the plea filed by Leader of Opposition in the Lok Sabha Rahul Gandhi and other INDIA bloc leaders challenging the Election Commission of India’s controversial exercise, saying it will hear the matter state-wise.
“The problem is that there cannot be a generalised challenge to SIR. We have to look at it state-wise,” said Chief Justice of India (CJI) Surya Kant, after senior advocate Arvind Datar mentioned the plea challenging SIR process in Maharashtra before the court.
Datar sought an urgent listing of the petition, saying that SIR data from Maharashtra was shocking as around 20 million out of the 97.9 million total voters in the state have been deleted from the draft rolls and another 12.2 million electors have been struck off under “logical discrepancies”. The lawyer pointed out that the situation was particularly serious in Mumbai and Pune, where over 40% of the total electors stand deleted.
Deep Dive
Stating that the matter was shown as listed for October 26, Datar urged the court if it could be taken up along with the petition filed by Rahul Gandhi and other Opposition leaders seeking an independent, timebound inquiry into alleged electoral irregularities and the functioning of ECI, and an interim suspension of the ongoing SIR pending the inquiry.
“We will not list it today. We will go through the data that you have produced. We have to concentrate on Maharashtra. Then we have to deal with the Delhi issues. We will list it some other day,” the CJI remarked.
The senior advocate — who mentioned the petition filed by one Arun Anandagiri, a chartered accountant and journalist — urged the court to issue notice in order for ECI, Centre and the Maharashtra government to file a response by October 26, when the court is expected to take up the matter. The apex court, however, refused to accept this suggestion as well.
Of the 97,854,049 electors in the pre-SIR rolls, 20,688,487 voters, or 21.14%, were placed in the ASDDO (absent, shifted, dead, duplicate, other) category in Maharashtra’s draft electoral rolls published on August 31, 2026. The final electoral rolls are scheduled to be published on November 16.
On Thursday, a bench of chief justice Surya Kant and justice Joymalya Bagchi, issued notice to ECI and the three election commissioners, including chief election commissioner (CEC) Gyanesh Kumar, on the petition filed by Rahul Gandhi and 12 other INDIA bloc leaders.
The plea alleges that CEC Gyanesh Kumar took several decisions unilaterally, raising questions about compliance with Article 324 of the Constitution and Section 18 of the Chief Election Commissioner and Other Election Commissioners (Appointment, Conditions of Service and Term of Office) Act, 2023, which provides for decision-making by majority in the event of a disagreement among the commissioners.
Referring to a media report that election commissioners Sukhbir Singh Sandhu and Vivek Joshi objected to Kumar’s alleged unilateral decision-making on 14 occasions over 10 months, the petition seeks production of the complete files, agendas, minutes, notings and objections recorded by the two commissioners on the disputed decisions.
The petition against Maharashtra SIR states that till the issue is adjudicated by the top court, the revision exercise in the state should be kept in abeyance and no voter whose name appeared in the pre-SIR list should be excluded or deleted.
