Rahul Gandhi during a briefing to I.N.D.I.A. leaders over voter theft allegations.
Credit: Congress
New Delhi: A public interest litigation (PIL) has been filed in the Supreme Court asking for a direction to constitute a special investigation team (SIT) headed by a former judge to inquire into the allegations of large-scale electoral-roll manipulation, which the Opposition has dubbed "vote chori" (vote theft).
Supreme Court advocate and Congress member Rohit Pandey filed the plea citing the allegations levelled by Leader of the Opposition in the Lok Sabha Rahul Gandhi on August 7.
"What is at stake here is not the outcome of a single electoral contest but the integrity and credibility of the electoral roll itself, the bedrock upon which the entire democratic process stands. When the electoral roll is corrupted by wrongful deletions and fraudulent insertions, the right to vote ceases to be equally accessible to all citizens, undermining the constitutional promise of universal adult suffrage," it said.
The plea also sought a direction to the Election Commission (EC) 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.
It also asked the court to frame and issue binding guidelines to the EC to ensure transparency, accountability, and integrity in the preparation, maintenance, and publication of electoral rolls, including mechanisms for the detection and prevention of duplicate or fictitious entries.
The plea also sought a direction to the EC to publish electoral rolls in accessible, machine-readable, and OCR-compliant formats to enable meaningful verification, audit, and public scrutiny.
The petitioner pointed out that the PIL was prompted by allegations of electoral roll manipulation, as observed in the Mahadevapura Assembly constituency, part of the Bengaluru Central Lok Sabha seat in Karnataka.
The allegations, levelled by Rahul Gandhi, concerned the manipulation of thousands of legitimate voters' names and the inclusion of fictitious or duplicate entries, allegedly with the involvement of political operatives and local officials.
"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," claimed the plea.
Such large-scale tampering of electoral rolls, if established, struck 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, it said.