The doors of the Supreme Court are open for everyone, Chief Justice Surya Kant underscored, but expressed his inability to meet the Opposition INDIA bloc over alleged electoral irregularities, stating that they should approach the court by filing a petition as the matter is already sub judice.
On Friday, leaders of various opposition parties of the INDIA bloc marched from Parliament to Vijay Chowk and later handed over a memorandum to President Droupadi Murmu. “The Supreme Court’s doors are open to everyone. Any petition from any common citizen or member of an elected body is welcome. This itself shows how much the government fears the youth agitation.”
Referring to the security clampdown in Delhi on Saturday, Kharge said, “Yesterday, nearly 32,000 police personnel and 7,500 CRPF personnel were deployed.
Intensifying their agitation against Chief Election Commissioner Gyanesh Kumar, the Opposition parties said they would march to the Supreme Court on Monday, with Congress’ Rahul Gandhi and Mallikarjun Kharge seeking a meeting with Chief Justice Kant to raise the issue of alleged “vote chori”. Both Gandhi and Kharge had written to the Chief Justice, seeking a meeting between 4 and 5 pm to hand over a memorandum, demanding an end to “vote chori”, Gyanesh Kumar’s resignation, halting of Special Intensive Revision (SIR) of electoral rolls, and switching back to the paper ballot format. Every Indian citizen has the right to approach the court, and we will hear their concerns and grant whatever is due under the law,” he said. A reasoned response explaining the grounds for the rejection has been sent to the Opposition leaders via email, people aware of the development said. Speaking in Bengaluru on Sunday, Kharge said Prime Minister Narendra Modi and Home Minister Amit Shah have “created chaos” across the country, and the heavy police deployment and detentions during the protests on Saturday showed the government’s “fear” of the youth agitation.
