Petition reached Supreme Court against Election Commission, registry found 14 major flaws

A new legal twist took place in the corridors of Indian politics when Leader of Opposition in the Lok Sabha Rahul Gandhi and several prominent leaders of the ‘India’ alliance together filed a joint petition in the Supreme Court against the functioning of the Election Commission (ECI) and the Special Intensive Revision (SIR) of the electoral rolls. Opposition parties allege that the Election Commission’s decisions are being taken unilaterally, which raises questions on the transparency of the electoral process.

However, as soon as this high-profile petition reached the Supreme Court registry, a total of 14 serious technical and documentary deficiencies were found in it. The Supreme Court Registry has clarified that unless all these legal and procedural flaws are rectified, this petition cannot be officially listed for hearing.

Many surprising administrative and paperwork errors have come to light in these 14 objections raised by the Supreme Court registry. According to media reports and legal documents, out of the total 11 petitioners included in this joint petition, except Rahul Gandhi and Mallikarjun Kharge, the remaining 9 have signatures of major opposition leaders (such as Samajwadi Party chief Akhilesh Yadav, RJD leader Tejashwi Yadav, NCP MP Supriya Sule, Shiv Sena (UBT) MP Sanjay Raut and TMC MP Saugata Roy among others. Vakalatnamas Found missing during filing.

Along with this, a slight reduction of Rs 220 has also been found in the court fees to be deposited in the petition. Technical objections such as copies of some documents not being clear or readable, irregularities in the numbering of pages and some pages being missing have also been registered by the Registry. Apart from this, questions have also been raised on the manner in which private parties and Election Commission officials have been made respondents in the draft of the petition.

After this initial administrative obstruction by the Supreme Court, now the legal team of the opposition parties is busy in rectifying the shortcomings as soon as possible. The opposition, led by Congress President Mallikarjun Kharge and Rahul Gandhi, had filed this petition with great enthusiasm and demanded that the apex court immediately intervene to maintain electoral transparency and fairness in the country.

However, as per the rules, unless these 14 points present in the petition are rectified and the clean documents and missing Vakalatnama are not submitted again, it will not be easy for the matter to be heard immediately. Political experts believe that such small procedural lapses in such a big legal battle also raise questions on the functioning of the opposition’s legal team.

Let us tell you that in this petition it has been mainly demanded that there should be an independent judicial inquiry into the steps taken by the Election Commission during the Voter List Revision (SIR) and it should be examined whether the Commission has properly fulfilled its constitutional responsibilities. The opposition has also demanded that the disputed procedures be put on hold until the matter is resolved.

Now it remains to be seen how quickly Rahul Gandhi and the lawyers of the opposition parties remove these 14 shortcomings and present the case before the Supreme Court for re-hearing, so that the court’s stand on this biggest electoral and political dispute of the country can be made clear.