Supreme Court Issues Notice to ECI Over Opposition Pleas on SIR Irregularities

New Delhi: While hearing the batch of petitions by Lok Sabha leader of opposition Rahul Gandhi and other opposition leaders challenging the Special Intensive Revision (SIR) exercise of the Election Commission of India (ECI), the Supreme Court on Thursday (October 15) issued notice to the ECI and Chief Election Commissioner (CEC) Gyanesh Kumar, reported Bar and Bench . A bench of Chief Justice of India (CJI) Surya Kant and Justice Joymalya Bagchi issued the notices and sought the responses of the ECI and CEC. The court tagged the pleas to the petitions on the issue which were already pending before the apex court. “We are issuing notice and tagging it with the matters already pending. Somebody will accept notice on behalf of the Election Commission of India. Otherwise, serve them,” said the court on Thursday. However, the bench said that it will ask one of the petitioners “to explain his conduct”. The court did not specify which petitioner it was referring to. “Issue notice. But one objection, before that. We would like to ask one of the petitioners about his conduct on the next date of hearing. Issuing notice does not mean that we are condemning anything. We are issuing notice. But about one of the petitioners, we will definitely entertain the issue. Issue notice. The notice on behalf of one of the petitioners will be entertained on a provisional basis, subject to his explaining his conduct,” said the court, reported Bar and Bench. Earlier, amid countrywide protests against CEC Kumar, LoP Gandhi had filed a writ petition in the Supreme Court challenging the controversial SIR exercise of the ECI. The Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP)-led Union government has presently unleashed a brutal crackdown on peaceful protesters demanding the resignation of CEC Kumar over the SIR, which has disenfranchised more than 13 crore people in the country whose names have been deleted from electoral rolls. Gandhi filed the petition after CJI Kant had refused to meet him and Congress president Mallikarjun Kharge who wanted an audience with him over the opposition’s demand for the removal of CEC Kumar. The other petitioners in the matter include Congress president Kharge, Trinamool Congress (TMC) leader Saugata Roy, Samajwadi Party (SP) president Akhilesh Yadav, Rashtriya Janata Dal (RJD) leader Tejashwi Yadav, Shiv Sena (Uddhav Balasaheb Thackeray) (Shiv Sena (UBT)) leader Sanjay Raut, Communist Party of India (Marxist) (CPI (M)) leader M. A. Baby, Communist Party of India (CPI) leader D. Raja, Mahua Majhi of the Jharkhand Mukti Morcha (JMM), Supriya Sule of the Nationalist Congress Party (Sharadchandra Pawar) (NCP (SP)), and Indian Union Muslim League (IUML) leader Mohammed Basheer. Among other things, the petition seeks the suspension of the SIR exercise across all states pending adjudication of the petition, reported LiveLaw . Some of the key prayers in the petition include disclosure of files, minutes, notings and objections recorded by Election Commissioners (ECs) on disputed SIR decisions, along with ECINET and ERONET access logs, production of the complete file relating to the ECI’s June 24, 2025 decision to launch the SIR and a direction to ensure that the online Form 6 conforms to the Registration of Electors Rules, 1960, unless the Rules are amended. The petition by the opposition leaders also seeks the constitution of a committee headed by a retired Supreme Court judge to audit SIR deletions and access to electoral-roll databases, and review EVM processes against global best practices, reported LiveLaw. The prayers also include a booth-wise publication of deleted voters’ names, along with reasons for deletion and age and gender-wise breakdowns, along with as a functional mechanism for restoration of names. For our full coverage on the SIR and the issues it has brought to citizens, click here .