New Delhi: A march was held in Delhi yesterday toward the Supreme Court on behalf of the INDIA alliance. Thousands participated in it, including Mallikarjun Kharge, Rahul Gandhi, Mamata Banerjee, Akhilesh Yadav, and Tejashwi Yadav.
Various protests have been held on behalf of the INDIA alliance demanding that Chief Election Commissioner Gyanesh Kumar resign in connection with the SIR issue. As a continuation of this, it had been announced that a march would be held toward the Supreme Court on October 12.
For this, senior leaders of the INDIA alliance parties gathered yesterday afternoon at the Congress headquarters on Ashoka Road in Delhi. From there, Congress president Mallikarjun Kharge, senior leaders Rahul Gandhi and Priyanka Gandhi, Trinamool Congress chief Mamata Banerjee, Samajwadi Party chief Akhilesh Yadav, Rashtriya Janata Dal senior leader Tejashwi Yadav, Nationalist Congress (Sharad Pawar) senior leader Supriya Sule, and others traveled by bus and vehicles to the Barakhamba Road area.
Similarly, opposition MPs and senior leaders, among others, traveled by vehicles to the protest area from the Constitution Club area on Sansad Marg.
The march began at 4 p.m. from Barakhamba Road in central Delhi toward the Supreme Court. Rahul Gandhi, Priyanka Gandhi, and others walked surrounded by supporters. Thousands from various parties, including Karnataka Chief Minister Siddaramaiah, Telangana Chief Minister Revanth Reddy, Himachal Pradesh Chief Minister Sukhvinder Singh Sukhu, and All India Students’ Association president Neha Bora, took part in the march.
The Supreme Court is located 1.8 km from Barakhamba Road. As the march had covered about a kilometer, police set up barricades on Bhagwan Das Road near Mandi House and stopped the procession. When the protesters tried to move forward by crossing the iron barricades, a clash broke out between the two sides. At the end of the march, INDIA alliance leaders had planned to meet Chief Justice of India Surya Kant and submit a memorandum. However, he instructed them to file it as a petition in the Supreme Court.
When the march was stopped midway, India alliance leaders argued with the police that a petition should be filed in the Supreme Court. Following this, the police allowed only senior leaders including Rahul Gandhi and lawyers to go to the Supreme Court. The other leaders and workers were loaded onto buses and vehicles and taken to various police stations. They were later released.
Petition filed in the Supreme Court
Leaders of the INDIA alliance and legal experts went to the Supreme Court to file a petition after 4:30 p.m. However, at the Supreme Court, the process of filing petitions ends at 4:30 p.m. This caused difficulty in filing the petition. Nevertheless, special permission was granted to file the writ petition. Following this, a petition was filed challenging the Election Commission’s Special Intensive Revision of the voter list (SIR).
Eleven people have been included as petitioners: Lok Sabha Leader of the Opposition Rahul Gandhi, Congress president Mallikarjun Kharge, Trinamool Congress senior leader Saugata Roy, Samajwadi Party leader Akhilesh Yadav, Rashtriya Janata Dal leader Tejashwi Yadav, Shiv Sena (Uddhav Thackeray) senior leader Sanjay Raut, Marxist senior leader Baby, Communist Party of India general secretary D. Raja, Jharkhand Mukti Morcha senior leader Mahua Maji, Nationalist Congress Party (Sharad Pawar) senior leader Supriya Sule, and Indian Union Muslim League senior leader Mohammed Basheer.
The respondents named are Chief Election Commissioner Gyanesh Kumar and Election Commissioners Sukhbir Singh Sandhu and Vivek Joshi. This writ petition is expected to be taken up for hearing today.
An interim stay should be imposed
The petition filed by the India alliance in the Supreme Court states: All documents related to SIR should be made public. The legality of the orders related to the SIR work should be examined. Strict action should be taken against officials who have erred. The legality of the online Form 6 should be examined. An inquiry into the SIR should be conducted under the leadership of a retired judge.
The list of deleted voters should be released. An explanation should be given as to why they were removed. The Election Commission should be directed not to delete a voter’s name without proper notice. An interim stay should be imposed on the SIR work. This is what has been stated in the petition.
