SC to hear pleas against Bihar electoral roll revision on July 10

The Supreme Court on Monday agreed to hear on July 10 a batch of petitions challenging the Election Commission of India’s (ECI) decision to undertake special intensive revision (SIR) of electoral rolls in poll-bound Bihar and allowed the petitioners seeking a stay of the ongoing exercise to serve a copy of their pleas to the poll body.

- Abraham Thomas

A bench of justices Sudhanshu Dhulia and Joymalya Bagchi, sitting during the partial working day, passed the order on an urgent mentioning by senior advocates Kapil Sibal, Abhishek Manu Singhvi, Gopal Sankarnarayanan and Shadan Farasat, representing multiple petitioners.

“Put up on Thursday. An advance copy of the petition be given to the respondent [ECI],” the bench said.

Rashtriya Janata Dal (RJD) and Trinamool Congress (TMC) lawmakers Manoj Jha and Mahua Moitra, nongovernment organisations Association for Democratic Reforms (ADR) and Peoples Union for Civil Liberties (PUCL), as ‘well as political activist Yogendra Yadav have filed the petitions challenging ECI’s June 24 order to undertake SIR in Bihar.

Later in the day, a fresh petition was filed by Opposition leaders, including KC Venugopal (INC), Supriya Sule (NCP-SP), D Raja (CPI), Harinder Malik (Samajwadi Party), Arvind Sawant (Shiv Sena-UBT), Sarfraz Ahmed (JMM), Dipankar Bhattacharya (CPI-ML), Murleedharan (CPI-M) and Drav-

NINE OPPOSITION PARTIES, LED BY CONGRESS LEADER KC VENUGOPAL, FILED A FRESH PETITION JOINTLY ON MONDAY