SC to hear plea for setting up of SIT to probe allegations of electoral roll tampering
New Delhi (PTI): The Supreme Court is likely to hear on October 13 a plea seeking the constitution of a special investigation team headed by a former judge to inquire into allegations of electoral roll manipulation in Bengaluru Central and other affected constituencies.
The plea has also cited the August 7 press conference by Rahul Gandhi where he presented data to buttress these claims.
According to the apex court website, the plea, filed by lawyer Rohit Pandey, is tentatively listed for hearing on October 13.
The plea also sought the apex court's direction that no further revision or finalisation of electoral rolls be undertaken until compliance with the court's directions and the completion of an independent audit of the rolls.
On August 7, the leader of opposition in Lok Sabha had made explosive claims of a "huge criminal fraud" in polls through "collusion" between the BJP and the Election Commission and had cited an analysis of voter rolls in a constituency in Karnataka last year.
Soon after Gandhi levelled the charge asserting that "vote chori" (vote theft) is an "atom bomb on our democracy", the chief electoral officers of Karnataka and Maharashtra had asked the former Congress chief to share names of electors he claimed were "wrong" in the voters' list along with a signed declaration for poll authorities to initiate "necessary proceedings" in the matter.
On August 17, Chief Election Commissioner Gyanesh Kumar had said Gandhi should either give a declaration under oath within seven days on his allegations of irregularities in the voter list, or else his 'vote theft' claims would be rendered baseless and invalid.
The plea filed in the apex court has urged the court to issue binding guidelines to the Election Commission to ensure transparency, accountability and integrity in the preparation, maintenance and publication of electoral rolls, including mechanisms for detection and prevention of duplicate or fictitious entries.
It 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 has observed grave irregularities in the electoral rolls of Bengaluru Central Parliamentary Constituency (Mahadevapura Assembly Constituency), which, on the face of it, warrant urgent consideration by this court," the plea said.
It said that the intervention by the apex court was essential to uphold and preserve the sanctity of the Constitution, which could only be effectively ensured by the court.
The plea claimed that in Maharashtra, after the 2024 Lok Sabha elections and prior to the assembly elections, within a span of around four months, about 39 lakh new voters were added to the electoral roll, whereas in the preceding five years, only around 50 lakh voters were added.
"Such a sudden and disproportionate increase raises a serious question on the transparency of the Election Commission in the process of addition of names to the voter list," the plea said.
It said the apex court has consistently held that free and fair elections constitute part of the 'basic structure' of the Constitution and cannot be diluted or subverted by any legislative or executive action.
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Cheating made bigger than it actually is: Gukesh
Prague (PTI): World Champion D Gukesh has categorically stated that the problems around cheating in chess are made to be bigger than its existence.
Speaking during a press conference for the Prague International festival, Gukesh said he did not support Vladimir Kramnik, a former world champion who has been infamously levelling charges against quite a few chess players suspecting cheating during online games.
“Obviously, I’m against any kind of unfair or unethical play," “It’s a kind of problem that we have been seeing lately," Gukesh said.
The whole world had stood out for Grandmaster Daniel Naroditsky of America who died at a young age of just 29 years. Naroditsky was a famous content creator in chess who appeared to be very emotional in his last stream just days before his untimely death.
Gukesh is not the only one to join the bandwagon as earlier World number one Magnus Carlsen, FIDE president Arkady Dvorkovich and Indian stars Arjun Erigaisi and Nihal Sarin had also criticised Kramnik as his allegations could not be substantiated with any definite proof.
Speaking about the forthcoming Candidates tournament, Gukesh said he did not believe in favourites and that he would love to play fellow city-mate R Praggnanandhaa.
Meanwhile in the first round of the super tournament, Gukesh will face Hans Moke Niemann of United States, another player who has fought his way to top level chess. Niemann is a dangerous customer and Gukesh likes to go for complex play which insures a fighting beginning for the World Champion.
The other Indian in the fray, Aravindh Chithambaram will take on Nodirbek Abdusattorov of Uzbekistan, a recent winner of the Tata Steel Masters.
