₹220 fee shortfall, missing vakalatnamas and an illegible ID copy stall the INDIA bloc plea; listing now sought for Wednesday
New Delhi, October 13: The INDIA bloc’s petition against Chief Election Commissioner Gyanesh Kumar will not be heard by the Supreme Court on Tuesday after the registry flagged 14 defects in the filing.
The objections include a ₹220 shortfall in court fees, an illegible photocopy of Congress president Mallikarjun Kharge’s identity card, and missing vakalatnamas for nine of the 11 petitioners. Those yet to submit them include Akhilesh Yadav, Tejashwi Yadav, Supriya Sule, Sanjay Raut and Saugata Roy. The registry also asked why the three election commissioners had been named as “private parties” in what is essentially a public interest petition. The legal team has asked for the matter to be listed on Wednesday once the defects are fixed.
Rahul Gandhi filed the petition in person on Monday evening alongside Kharge and nine other Opposition leaders. Police had stopped their “March for Democracy” about 600 metres from the court. A day earlier, Chief Justice Surya Kant had declined to meet the two Leaders of Opposition but assured them of a quick hearing if they approached the court.
Filed through advocate S Prasanna, the plea seeks an independent, time-bound inquiry into decisions allegedly taken unilaterally by Kumar, including the June 2025 decision to launch the SIR. It also asks that the revision be suspended pending the inquiry. Citing reports that commissioners Sukhbir Singh Sandhu and Vivek Joshi objected 14 times in 10 months, the petition seeks the complete files and notings. The BJP has dismissed the campaign as theatrics.
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