New Delhi:
The doors of the Supreme Court are open for everyone, Chief Justice Surya Kant underscored, but expressed his inability to meet the Opposition INDIA bloc over alleged electoral irregularities, stating that they should approach the court by filing a petition as the matter is already sub judice.
Intensifying their agitation against Chief Election Commissioner Gyanesh Kumar, the Opposition parties said they would march to the Supreme Court on Monday, with Congress’ Rahul Gandhi and Mallikarjun Kharge seeking a meeting with Chief Justice Kant to raise the issue of alleged “vote chori”.
Both Gandhi and Kharge had written to the Chief Justice, seeking a meeting between 4 and 5 pm to hand over a memorandum, demanding an end to “vote chori”, Gyanesh Kumar’s resignation, halting of Special Intensive Revision (SIR) of electoral rolls, and switching back to the paper ballot format.
“I received a letter yesterday regarding a meeting request, and I responded to it last night, outlining the reasons why I will be unable to meet,” Chief Justice Surya Kant told reporters after NHRC’s 33rd Foundation Day function today.
“The Supreme Court’s doors are open to everyone. Any petition from any common citizen or member of an elected body is welcome. Every Indian citizen has the right to approach the court, and we will hear their concerns and grant whatever is due under the law,” he said.
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A reasoned response explaining the grounds for the rejection has been sent to the Opposition leaders via email, people aware of the development said.
According to sources, the response emphasised that the issues raised by the Leader of the Opposition in the Lok Sabha, Rahul Gandhi and the delegation would be more appropriately addressed through judicial proceedings rather than by submitting a memorandum through the administrative route.
The Congress has termed Monday’s protest “Chalo Delhi – March for Democracy”, for which the leaders are scheduled to converge at the Connaught Place-Barakhamba Road junction at 1.30 pm.
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In a post on X, Rahul Gandhi said the march to the Supreme Court would be taken out by Indians united beyond parties, gender, caste, community and state.
“Yesterday, the nation’s youth came out in Delhi to peacefully protest. They came with love in their hearts, not hatred or anger. They were beaten, both by cops and BJP goons. This is not the India we want.
“Tomorrow, we will march to the Supreme Court as Indians, united beyond party, gender, caste, community and state. Youth, all opposition parties, civil society groups, and all those who believe in democracy and stand by the Constitution of India will walk with us,” Gandhi said in the post.
On Friday, leaders of various opposition parties of the INDIA bloc marched from Parliament to Vijay Chowk and later handed over a memorandum to President Droupadi Murmu.
Speaking in Bengaluru on Sunday, Kharge said Prime Minister Narendra Modi and Home Minister Amit Shah have “created chaos” across the country, and the heavy police deployment and detentions during the protests on Saturday showed the government’s “fear” of the youth agitation.
Referring to the security clampdown in Delhi on Saturday, Kharge said, “Yesterday, nearly 32,000 police personnel and 7,500 CRPF personnel were deployed. This itself shows how much the government fears the youth agitation.”
All these demonstrate that the government does not want democracy to function peacefully in India, Kharge alleged.
“We will continue our fight to protect democracy and the constitutional rights of the people,” he added.
On behalf of the INDIA bloc, Rahul Gandhi and Kharge had also written a letter to the Chief Justice in June. The DMK and the Aam Aadmi Party had also signed it.
The INDIA bloc termed the SIR exercise a “monumental disaster” and had raised questions regarding Chief Election Commissioner Gyanesh Kumar.
The letter said “we all, representing like-minded political parties, firmly opposed to the BJP, believe that the electoral process is being manipulated and outcomes in multiple instances do not reflect the will of the people”.
“The reason for our grave concern is the brazen biased conduct of the Election Commission of India, in particular the Chief Election Commissioner. There has been open, unabashed support of the BJP during the course of and in the outcome of electoral processes,” the June letter said.
“The grievance redressal mechanism was inadequate and there was a massive arbitrary deletion of names without proper notice. The alleged objective of the exercise was to remove duplicate voters and the names of the deceased and migrants from the voters lists. But the process, as implemented, lacked not just transparency but was implemented in a manner unknown to all processes undertaken in the past,” the letter said.
The Opposition’s aggressive push comes days after a report in The Indian Express claimed internal differences within the poll body, with election commissioners Sukhbir Singh Sandhu and Vivek Joshi objecting on record at least 14 times over the last 10 months, including on the Special Intensive Revision (SIR) of electoral rolls.
Last week, the INDIA bloc finalised a joint action plan on the SIR row, including holding rallies and “save democracy” marches.
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