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The Supreme Court on Monday refused to entertain a PIL seeking a Special Investigation Team (SIT) headed by a former judge to inquire into the allegations raised by Leader of Opposition Rahul Gandhi of large-scale electoral roll manipulation.
A bench comprising Justices Surya Kant and Joymalya Bagchi stated that the petitioner may pursue the matter before the Election Commission of India. "We have heard the petitioner's counsel. We are not inclined to entertain the petition, which is purportedly filed in public interest. The petitioner may pursue before ECI, if so advised," the bench said. Advocate and Congress member Rohit Pandey has filed the plea citing the allegations levelled by Gandhi on August 7 regarding electoral-roll manipulation in Bengaluru Central and other constituencies. He placed reliance on Gandhi's press conference of August 7 in which he alleged manipulation of electoral rolls of the Mahadevapura assembly constituency in Bengaluru. The plea has also sought directions to the frame and issue binding guidelines to the Election Commission of India to ensure transparency, accountability, and integrity in the preparation, maintenance, and publication of electoral rolls, including mechanisms for detection and prevention of duplicate or fictitious entries. It asked for no further revision or finalisation of electoral rolls be undertaken until compliance with the court's directions and completion of an independent audit of the rolls. The petition also sought directions to the ECI to publish electoral rolls in accessible, machine-readable and OCR-compliant formats to enable meaningful verification, audit and public scrutiny. "Upon coming across credible revelations, including a press conference dated August 7, 2025 by the Leader of the Opposition in the Lok Sabha, Rahul Gandhi, alleging large-scale manipulation of genuine voters' names, and inclusion of fictitious entries in the electoral rolls of the Mahadevapura Assembly Constituency (falling within the Bengaluru Central Parliamentary Constituency), the petitioner became gravely concerned, as such actions, if true, strike at the core of the "one person, one vote" principle enshrined under Articles 325 and 326 of the Constitution," the petition stated. It further claimed, "The material disclosed in the press conference includes extracts from the electoral roll, showing identical names in multiple polling parts; and entries linked to non-existent or commercial addresses and other forms of manipulation. Independent citizen verification reportedly confirmed the bogus and duplicate entries." The petitioner said that after independently verifying the authenticity of these reports through publicly available government data, he found sufficient prima facie material to establish that the allegations reveal a systemic attempt to dilute and distort the value of lawful votes, thereby necessitating urgent intervention of the Supreme Court. (ANI)
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