00:00With a story that's breaking at this moment, India today has now accessed the opposition's plea in the Supreme Court
00:06against the Election Commission.
00:09The petition that was filed late this evening by Rahul Gandhi and other opposition leaders challenges the Election Commission functioning
00:16the legality of key decisions taken during that special intensive revision exercise, alleged arbitrary voter deletions and the integrity of
00:25electoral databases.
00:26The petition claims Form 6 was modified illegally and is demanding an independent audit of the EC software used for
00:35the voter database.
00:37So that's the main petition that has been filed, claiming that Form 6 was illegally modified and the CEC being
00:47accused of unilaterally taking all decisions.
00:50Anisha Mathur, who tracks the Supreme Court for us, joins me at the moment.
00:54Anisha, what more details can you give us and when is this petition likely to be heard?
01:00Well, Rajdeep, as far as a hearing is concerned, we're still waiting for an update from the Supreme Court.
01:05But remember, on the 5th of October, a similar petition had come up before the Supreme Court on these very
01:10topics.
01:11After the news reportage has pointed out allegations of unilateral decision-making in the Election Commission.
01:21When the petition had been filed earlier, the court had given the date of 27th of October.
01:26But after today's very, very dramatic scenes where we had the entire India Bloc leadership coming to the Supreme Court
01:34in person,
01:34we saw so many protesters entering the Supreme Court lawns, Supreme Court premises.
01:39Now this petition has raised similar issues.
01:42What have they said?
01:43First of all, that there was unilateral decision-making in the Election Commission,
01:47violating the Election Commission Act and the RP Act.
01:51That the independence and institutional function, and I'm reading from the petition here,
01:55independence and institutional functioning of the Election Commission is essential to conduct a free and fair election,
02:01which form basic structure of the Constitution.
02:04And concerns arise from the Election Commission's own responses under the RTI Act regarding the decision to commence the nationwide
02:13SIR.
02:14They have based their petition on these RTI responses to suggest that unilateral decision-making was conducted.
02:22There are questions being raised about the ECINET and ERONET,
02:25who had access to changing the databases, who had access to changing the Formula 6,
02:32and the safeguards available for reversing any erroneous decisions.
02:37When lakhs of people have been deleted from their voter list during the SIR,
02:42what exactly is happening with correction of those?
02:45If you can give me 10 more seconds, I just want to read out one more point.
02:49They have said that internal review in the Election Commission cannot substitute an independent audit of the electoral road databases.
02:58So they've called for all the file noting, they've called for independent review,
03:02as well as inquiry into what kind of decision-making has been happening.
03:07Now we'll have to wait and see when this matter will be heard.
03:09Back to you.
03:09Anisha Mathur, with those details, appreciate you joining me.
03:13Remember, as Anisha said, all of this happens on a rather dramatic day,
03:16where India Bloc leaders, led by Rahul Gandhi, took a march to the Supreme Court.
03:21Thousands of Congress workers, accompanied by the leader of the opposition,
03:24and the other India Bloc leaders, Priyanka Gandhi, Akhilesh Yadam, Mamata Banerjee,
03:29and others, all of them, are part of this march.
03:32Rahul Gandhi, at a press meet earlier, had urged Gyanesh Kumar to turn approver.
03:38The BJP has rubbished the opposition charges against the Chief Election Commissioner.
