The Supreme Court is hearing a batch of petitions concerning protests taking place in Delhi against alleged irregularities in the conduct of the Special Intensive Revision (SIR) of electoral rolls and seeking the resignation of Chief Election Commissioner (CEC) Gyanesh Kumar.
Pertinently, the Court is also hearing petitions filed by Leader of Opposition Rahul Gandhi and other opposition leaders challenging large-scale voter deletions and alleged irregularities in the ongoing Special Intensive Revision (SIR) of electoral rolls.
The matters are listed before a Bench of Chief Justice of India (CJI) Surya Kant and Justice Joymlaya Bagchi.
The petitions relating to protests raise concerns about restrictions imposed on public transport and movement, alleged illegal detentions, police action against lawyers, journalists and protesters, and the alleged defiance of judicial directions in such matters.
The protests followed a report published by the Indian Express which alleged that CEC Gyanesh Kumar had taken several decision regarding the SIR unilaterally, despite certain objections raised by two other Election Commissioners.
Several protestors were detained over the weekend by the Delhi police as part of efforts to curb the demonstrations. The en masse detentions led to several petitions before the Supreme Court, including those alleging that even lawyers and journalists were detained and prevented from carrying out their professional duties.
On October 11 (Sunday), the top court held a special sitting as well to examine some of these issues. The Court proceeded to issue directions restraining the police from detaining peaceful protestors, lawyers and journalists. However, petitions were later filed alleging that the police continued carrying out illegal detentions in defiance of the Supreme Court's directives.
Several such petitions, including one by the Supreme Court Bar Association (SCBA) are listed today.
Among other petitions, a plea challenging the recent de-notification of Jantar Mantar as a designated protest site is also listed for hearing today.
Live updates from today's hearing feature here.