Supreme Court To Hear On October 13 Plea Seeking SIT Probe Into Rahul Gandhi's 'Vote Chori' Allegations

The Supreme Court is scheduled to hear on October 13, a Public Interest Litigation petition seeking the constitution of a Special Investigation Team(SIT) headed by a former Judge to inquire into the allegations raised by the Leader of Opposition, Rahul Gandhi, regarding large-scale voters list manipulation in the Bengaluru Central constituency during the 2024 Lok Sabha elections.The petition filed by Advocate Rohit Pandey also sought a direction that 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 petitioner further sought the framing and issuance of binding guidelines by the Election Commission of India to ensure transparency, accountability, and integrity in the preparation, maintenance, and publication of electoral rolls, including mechanisms for detecting and preventing duplicate or fictitious entries.The Election Commission was also sought to be directed to publish electoral rolls in accessible, machine-readable and OCR-compliant formats to enable meaningful verification, audit and public scrutiny.Electoral Discrepancies Alleged By The PetitionerThe petition cited Rahul Gandhi's press conference of August 7 where he raised the issue of alleged voter list manipulations in Mahadevapura assembly constituency in Bengaluru Central LS constituency. The petitioner claimed that he had independently verified the allegations raised by the Leader of Opposition and "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 by this Hon'ble Court in the larger public interest."According to him, there existed 40,009 invalid voters and 10,452 duplicate entries in the constituency. It was stated that there were instances of one persons having different EPIC numbers in different states, although the EPIC number is supposed to be unique. Also, several voters had identical house addresses and fathers' names. About 80 voters in one booth had given the address of a small house. Such instances raise grave doubts about the authenticity of the rolls and the possibilities of bogus voting could not be ruled out."Such manipulation of the voter list strikes at the very root of the constitutional guarantee enshrined under Article 326 (universal adult suffrage), violates Articie 324 (superintendence of free and . fair elections by the Election Commission of India), and directly infringes Articles 14 and 21 of the Constitution of India, which safeguard equality before law and the right to meaningfully participate in democratic governance," the petitioner stated.The petitioner argued that such large-scale tampering of the electoral roll, if established, strikes at the foundation of the constitutional mandate of "one person, one vote" under Articles 325 and 326, dilutes the value of lawful votes, and violates the principles of equality and due process.The petition has been filed through Advocate Kausar Raza Faridi. Case : Rohit Pandey v. Union of India and others | Diary No.46726/2025

Supreme Court To Hear On October 13 Plea Seeking SIT Probe Into Rahul Gandhi's 'Vote Chori' Allegations

Anmol Kaur Bawa

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