The Supreme Court on Monday dismissed a Public Interest Litigation (PIL) that called for a Special Investigation Team (SIT) to investigate widespread allegations of manipulation and discrepancies in electoral rolls across several states. The plea, which cited claims originally raised by Leader of Opposition Rahul Gandhi, was turned away by the court, which advised the petitioner to seek alternative legal remedies.
A Bench comprising Justices Surya Kant and Joymalya Bagchi made it clear that the petition would not be entertained in its current form. “Pursue your remedy wherever you want,” Justice Kant told the petitioner, adding that while a representation was reportedly made to the Election Commission, the Supreme Court was not the appropriate forum for this PIL. “Writ Petition purportedly filed in public interest shall not be entertained,” the Court’s order stated, granting the petitioner liberty to explore other available legal avenues.
The petition detailed alarming irregularities that it claimed compromised the constitutional guarantee of free and fair elections. It highlighted the Mahadevapura Assembly constituency in Bengaluru, where an analysis allegedly uncovered over 40,000 invalid voters, more than 10,000 duplicate entries, and thousands of voters sharing identical details like house numbers or father’s names. The plea argued that such discrepancies undermine the foundational democratic principle of “one person, one vote.”
The allegations extended beyond Karnataka. The petition pointed to Maharashtra, where nearly 39 lakh new voters were reportedly added in just four months. In another instance from Chandrapur, about 80 voters were allegedly registered to a single vacant address. The plea also referenced an FIR filed in Kalaburagi, Karnataka, after suspicious additions to the voter roll were discovered, and the case of a 63-year-old woman whose name was deleted from the rolls, an action she denied ever requesting.
Arguing that these actions violated Articles 14, 21, 324, 325, and 326 of the Constitution, the petitioner contended that the integrity of the electoral process was at stake. Citing previous Supreme Court rulings, the plea emphasized that free and fair elections are part of the basic structure of the Constitution. The petitioner had urged the court to order an independent probe and issue binding directions to the Election Commission of India to ensure transparency and accountability in the maintenance of voter lists nationwide.
