'Vote chori' not new issue, Kejriwal exposed it during Delhi assembly polls: AAP
New Delhi (PTI): The AAP on Thursday alleged that names of 42,000 voters were deleted in the New Delhi constituency before the 2025 Delhi Assembly elections and asserted that party chief Arvind Kejriwal had exposed "vote chori" long before Congress leader Rahul Gandhi did.
Addressing a press conference, AAP Delhi unit president Saurabh Bharadwaj said the Election Commission had refused to probe the matter despite glaring evidence, and when it finally summoned applicants for vote deletions, only 11 people turned up -- all of whom denied filing such requests.
There was no immediate reaction to AAP's charges by the Election Commission.
After his vote theft charges, Congress leader Rahul Gandhi on Thursday accused Chief Election Commissioner Gyanesh Kumar of protecting those who indulged in "vote chori" and "destroyed democracy" while citing data from a Karnataka assembly constituency to claim that votes of Congress voters were being systematically deleted in a targeted manner.
The Election Commission, however, dubbed the charges as "incorrect and baseless" and asserted that no deletion of votes can happen without giving an opportunity of being heard to the affected person.
During the press conference, Bharadwaj claimed that in the New Delhi assembly constituency alone, 42,000 votes were deleted out of 1.48 lakh in one go, with another 6,100 removed later.
He also claimed that while only 84 people applied for the deletion of 4,000 votes, applications were filed to create more than 10,000 "fake" votes.
He alleged that for the past 11 years, a systematic conspiracy of vote theft has been murdering democracy across the country.
"I want to tell the people of the country that the very thing (Rahul) Gandhi said on September 18, 2025 was already said, with evidence, by Kejriwal on December 29, 2024 -- nine months ago, two months before the Delhi elections,” Bharadwaj said.
He recalled that Kejriwal presented evidence of how names were being selected for deletion -- specifically the names of voters who were not BJP voters, but AAP voters in Delhi.
"Questions must be asked from then Chief Election Commissioner Rajiv Kumar, and from Gyanesh Kumar,” he stressed.
The former Delhi minister claimed that in the New Delhi constituency alone where Kejriwal contested, 42,000 names had already been deleted -- reducing the rolls from 1,48,000 to 1,06,000 voters.
Even then, another 6,100 deletion applications and 10,500 new voter applications were filed.
“Some individuals filed hundreds of deletion requests -- Tarun Kumar Chautala tried to delete 108 votes, Usha Devi 22 votes, Rajkumar 82 votes -- yet when produced, they all denied ever submitting such applications. Still, the EC showed no interest in investigating. How can this happen?” he questioned.
Bharadwaj said this practice was not new, recalling how Kejriwal and AAP had already campaigned against mass voter deletions before the 2019 Lok Sabha elections. “Kejriwal had posted online that 30 lakh votes were similarly deleted by the BJP in Delhi, and that this was happening all across the country in collusion with the EC. In Telangana, badminton player Jwala Gutta and her entire family’s votes were deleted before the elections,” he said.
In a related development, the Delhi BJP welcomed Special Intensive Revision (SIR) of the national capital's voter list, a day after the Delhi chief electoral officer said preparations for the exercise have started.
The BJP has always been committed to ensuring the accuracy of Delhi's electoral roll and in the last two decades, the party has made every effort to cleanse it, Delhi BJP president Virendra Sachdeva told reporters.
Sachdeva said that opposition leaders including Rahul Gandhi and Kejriwal are against SIR as they want to "retain" infiltrator voters to get their support.
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Ordinance issued to increase number of Supreme Court judges from 34 to 38
New Delhi (PTI): The government has promulgated an ordinance to increase the strength of the Supreme Court from the present 34 judges to 38, including the Chief Justice of India.
The law ministry notified the ordinance on Saturday, which amended the Supreme Court (Number of Judges) Act, 1956, to increase the sanctioned strength of the top court.
So far, the sanctioned strength of the top court was 34, including the Chief Justice of India (CJI). Now, the number of judges has been increased by four, taking the sanctioned strength to 38.
The top court will now have 37 judges, other than the CJI.
With the apex court having two vacancies at present, and the ordinance coming into force immediately, the Supreme Court Collegium will now have to recommend six names for appointment as judges in the top court.
A bill will be brought in the Monsoon Session of Parliament to convert the ordinance – an executive order – into a law passed by Parliament.
The Union Cabinet had cleared a draft bill on May 5 to increase the number of apex court judges.
The strength of the Supreme Court was last increased from 30 to 33 (excluding the CJI) in 2019.
The Supreme Court (Number of Judges) Act, as originally enacted in 1956, put the maximum number of judges (excluding the CJI) at 10.
This number was increased to 13 by the Supreme Court (Number of Judges), Amendment Act, 1960, and to 17 by another amendment to the law.
The Supreme Court (Number of Judges) Amendment Act, 1986, augmented the strength of judges from 17 to 25, excluding the CJI.
A fresh amendment in 2009 further increased the strength from 25 to 30.
Article 124(3) of the Constitution lists the qualifications required to become a Supreme Court judge.
An Indian citizen who has either served as a high court judge for at least five years, or as an advocate for 10 years, or is a distinguished jurist, can be appointed to the top court.
The strength of the Supreme Court is increased based on the recommendations of the CJI, who writes to the Union law minister. After consulting the finance ministry, the Department of Justice under the law ministry moves the Cabinet with a draft bill.
