Rahul Gandhi’s Plea Not Listed for Supreme Court Hearing as Registry Defects Remain Unresolved

PTI, Oct 13, 2026, New Delhi: The petition filed by Congress leader Rahul Gandhi and 10 prominent opposition leaders could not be heard in the Supreme Court today as defects pointed out by the registry were yet to be cured.

As per the Supreme Court’s website, the apex court registry had flagged 14 defects, including lack of a clear copy of the ID card of Congress president and Leader of Opposition in Rajya Sabha Mallikarjun Kharge, a co-petitioner in the case. The registry had also pointed out certain illegible or missing pages in the petition.

Chief Justice of India Surya Kant, in his response to Rahul’s request for a meeting to submit a memorandum on issues concerning the Chief Election Commissioner and the Election Commission, the alleged arbitrary arrest of several students, closure of Metro stations and cancellation of trains, had assured early hearing of the plea, if filed, on the judicial side.

On Tuesday, a bench headed by the CJI assured the petitioners that their matters would be listed for hearing if the defects are cured.

“We will list all these matters. Make sure that the defects are cured,” the CJI told senior advocate Gopal Sankaranarayanan, who mentioned the matter on behalf of a journalist.

Besides Rahul and Kharge, TMC MP Saugata Roy, Samajwadi Party chief Akhilesh Yadav, Rashtriya Janata Dal leader Tejashwi Prasad Yadav, Nationalist Congress Party (Sharad Pawar) leader Supriya Sule, Shiv Sena-UBT leader Sanjay Raut, Communist Party of India’s D Raja, Jharkhand Mukti Morcha MP Mahua Majhi, CPI(M) general secretary M A Baby and Indian Union Muslim League leader E T Mohammed Basheer are co-petitioners in the plea filed by the Congress leader.

The plea has alleged large-scale voter deletions and irregularities in the Special Intensive Revision (SIR) of electoral rolls. It has sought the constitution of an independent committee, headed by a retired apex court judge and assisted by technical experts and other citizens of eminence, to conduct a time-bound, independent audit of deletions and modifications made during the SIR.

It has also sought a direction to ensure that no elector is deleted from the electoral rolls without notice and a reasonable opportunity of hearing in accordance with the law, and also to ensure that eligible persons in Punjab and other states going to polls are permitted to seek inclusion in the electoral rolls until the last date permitted by law.

“Issue an interim direction suspending the ongoing Special Intensive Revision of electoral rolls across the states, pending consideration and adjudication of the issues raised in the present petition, in the interests of protecting the rights of eligible electors and preserving the integrity of the electoral process,” the plea said.

The petition has made the Election Commission of India, Chief Election Commissioner Gyanesh Kumar and Election Commissioners Sukhbir Singh Sandhu and Vivek Joshi parties in the case.