'Pursue Before ECI' : Supreme Court Refuses To Entertain Plea Seeking SIT Probe Into Rahul Gandhi's Voters' List Fraud Allegations

The Supreme Court today refused to entertain a plea for a Special Investigation Team (SIT) probe into the allegations raised by Leader of Opposition-Rahul Gandhi, regarding large-scale voters list manipulation in the Bengaluru Central constituency during the 2024 Lok Sabha elections.

At the outset, the bench of Justices Surya Kant and Joymalya Bagchi told the petitioner to pursue the matter before the Election Commission of India.  The petitioner's counsel replied that representation has already been submitted before the Election Commission of India, which has not yet take any action.

The bench however refused to entertain the matter and disposed it of, observing that the petitioner 'may' pursue the matter before the ECI. Though the counsel sought for fixing a timelimit for the ECI to decide, the bench declined to pass any such direction.

"We have heard the petitioner's counsel. We are not inclined to entertain the petition, which is purportedly filed in public interest. The petitioner may pursue before ECI, if so advised," the bench observed in its order.

The petition, filed by one Rohit Pandey, also sought a direction that no further revision or finalization of electoral rolls be undertaken until compliance with the Court's directions and completion of an independent audit of the rolls.

The petitioner further sought framing and issuance of binding guidelines by the Election Commission of India to ensure transparency, accountability, and integrity in the preparation, maintenance, and publication of electoral rolls, including mechanisms for detecting and preventing duplicate or fictitious entries.

The Election Commission was also sought to be directed to publish electoral rolls in accessible, machine-readable and OCR-compliant formats to enable meaningful verification, audit and public scrutiny.

Electoral Discrepancies Alleged By The Petitioner

The petition cited Rahul Gandhi's press conference of August 7 where he raised the issue of alleged voter list manipulations in Mahadevapura assembly constituency in Bengaluru Central LS constituency. The petitioner claimed that he had independently verified the allegations raised by the Leader of Opposition and "found sufficient prima facie material to establish that the allegations reveal a systemic attempt to dilute and distort the value of lawful votes, thereby necessitating urgent intervention by this Hon'ble Court in the larger public interest."

According to him, there existed 40,009 invalid voters and 10,452 duplicate entries in the constituency. It was stated that there were instances of one person having different EPIC numbers in different states, although the EPIC number is supposed to be unique. Also, several voters had identical house addresses and fathers' names. About 80 voters in one booth had given the address of a small house. Such instances raise grave doubts about the authenticity of the rolls and the possibilities of bogus voting could not be ruled out.

"Such manipulation of the voter list strikes at the very root of the constitutional guarantee enshrined under Article 326 (universal adult suffrage), violates Articie 324 (superintendence of free and fair elections by the Election Commission of India), and directly infringes Articles 14 and 21 of the Constitution of India, which safeguard equality before law and the right to meaningfully participate in democratic governance," the petitioner stated.

The petitioner argued that such large-scale tampering of the electoral roll, if established, strikes at the foundation of the constitutional mandate of "one person, one vote" under Articles 325 and 326, dilutes the value of lawful votes, and violates the principles of equality and due process.

Case Title: Rohit Pandey v. Union of India and others | Diary No. 46726/2025

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