India’s Chief Justice declines meeting with INDIA bloc
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Chief Justice of India Surya Kant said on Monday the doors of the Supreme Court remain open to all citizens, yet he expressed his inability to grant a meeting to the Opposition INDIA bloc concerning alleged electoral irregularities because the matter is already sub judice.
Escalating their agitation against Chief Election Commissioner Gyanesh Kumar, Opposition parties announced plans to march toward the Supreme Court, with Congress leaders Rahul Gandhi and Mallikarjun Kharge requesting an appointment with Kant to raise allegations of “vote chori”.
Both Rahul and Kharge previously submitted a written request seeking a meeting between 4 pm and 5 pm to hand over a memorandum demanding an immediate halt to “vote chori”, the resignation of Kumar, the suspension of the Special Intensive Revision (SIR) of electoral rolls, and a return to paper ballots.
Speaking to journalists following the 33rd Foundation Day ceremony of the National Human Rights Commission (NHRC), Kant confirmed, “I received a letter yesterday regarding a meeting request, and I responded to it last night, outlining the reasons why I will be unable to meet.”
He added, “The Supreme Court’s doors are open to everyone. Any petition from any common citizen or member of an elected body is welcome. Every Indian citizen has the right to approach the court, and we will hear their concerns and grant whatever is due under the law.”
Officials dispatched a detailed, reasoned email response to the Opposition leaders outlining the grounds for rejecting the meeting request.
According to sources, the response highlighted that judicial proceedings, rather than an administrative memorandum, offer the appropriate avenue to address the concerns raised by Opposition Leader in the Lok Sabha, Rahul Gandhi and his delegation.
Congress party labeled Monday’s demonstration as “Chalo Delhi - March for Democracy”, asking leaders to gather at the Connaught Place-Barakhamba Road junction at 1:30 pm. In a post published on X, Rahul declared that citizens united beyond party, gender, caste, community, and state lines would carry out the march to the Supreme Court.
In his post, Gandhi wrote, “Yesterday, the nation’s youth came out in Delhi to peacefully protest. They came with love in their hearts, not hatred or anger. They were beaten, both by cops and BJP goons. This is not the India we want.
“Tomorrow, we will march to the Supreme Court as Indians, united beyond party, gender, caste, community and state. Youth, all opposition parties, civil society groups, and all those who believe in democracy and stand by the Constitution of India will walk with us.”
Earlier on Friday, leaders representing various member parties of the INDIA bloc marched from Parliament to Vijay Chowk before delivering a memorandum to President Droupadi Murmu.
Addressing an audience in Bengaluru on Sunday, Kharge asserted that Prime Minister Narendra Modi and Home Minister Amit Shah have “created chaos” throughout the country, maintaining that massive police mobilization and detentions during Saturday’s demonstrations reflected the administration’s “fear” of youth-led resistance.
Referring to Saturday’s security clampdown in Delhi, Kharge said, “Yesterday, nearly 32,000 police personnel and 7,500 CRPF personnel were deployed. This itself shows how much the government fears the youth agitation.”
Alleging that these security deployments prove the government opposes peaceful democratic functioning in India, Kharge added, “We will continue our fight to protect democracy and the constitutional rights of the people.”
Back in June, Rahul Gandhi and Mallikarjun Kharge had co-authored another letter to the chief justice on behalf of the INDIA bloc, which key allies including the DMK and the Aam Aadmi Party also signed.
In that letter, the alliance termed the SIR exercise a “monumental disaster” and raised sharp questions regarding Gyanesh Kumar. The letter asserted, “we all, representing like-minded political parties, firmly opposed to the BJP, believe that the electoral process is being manipulated and outcomes in multiple instances do not reflect the will of the people.
“The reason for our grave concern is the brazen biased conduct of the Election Commission of India, in particular the Chief Election Commissioner. There has been open, unabashed support of the BJP during the course of and in the outcome of electoral processes.”
The letter added, “The grievance redressal mechanism was inadequate and there was a massive arbitrary deletion of names without proper notice. The alleged objective of the exercise was to remove duplicate voters and the names of the deceased and migrants from the voters lists. But the process, as implemented, lacked not just transparency but was implemented in a manner unknown to all processes undertaken in the past.”
The push from the Opposition follows recent reports in The Indian Express with significant internal discord within the poll body, noting that Election Commissioners Sukhbir Singh Sandhu and Vivek Joshi formally recorded objections at least 14 times over the past 10 months, specifically regarding the Special Intensive Revision (SIR) of electoral rolls.
As a result, the INDIA bloc finalized a unified action plan last week surrounding the SIR controversy, which encompasses public rallies and comprehensive “save democracy” marches across the country.
Source: NDTV (adapted)
