India’s Supreme Court To Hear Demand For Election Commission’s Internal Records

India’s Supreme Court is due to hear on Thursday an opposition petition seeking disclosure of the Election Commission’s internal files on a revision of electoral rolls that has allegedly removed about 130 million names

Representational Image: @RahulGandhi on X

The petition filed by Rahul Gandhi, the leader of the opposition in the lower house, and other opposition leaders, asks the court to order the release of the files, agendas, minutes, notings and objections recorded by the two election commissioners, Sukhbir Singh Sandhu and Vivek Joshi.

It asks the court to examine those records to establish whether Chief Election Commissioner acted arbitrarily and unilaterally, and seeks an interim order suspending the revision while the case is decided. 

The two commissioners are central to the dispute. The Indian Express reported earlier that they had raised concerns with the chief election commissioner at least 14 times over ten months about decisions on voter registration and deletion. The commission says all its decisions were lawful and that differing views are normal in internal deliberations.

Petitions challenging the police operation against demonstrators on 10 October are listed too. The government has reportedly said its response to allegations of unlawful detention and of the restrictions imposed on the capital is ready but needs further work.

On Wednesday Rahul Gandhi appeared before reporters with young people who said they had been assaulted in police custody. Their accounts, issued by the Congress party, described beatings inside police stations and vehicles. One said she had lost hearing in one ear. 

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— Rahul Gandhi (@RahulGandhi) October 14, 2026

The protests began on 2 October. They have produced more than 7,000 detentions on one police count and lower figures on others, metro closures, a 24-hour suspension of mobile internet in some parts of Delhi, and the removal of Jantar Mantar, the capital’s designated protest ground, from the list of approved venues.

The ruling alliance has rejected the case. Two union ministers said on Tuesday that the Congress had never filed a sworn affidavit with the commission and had raised no objection while the revision was under way in Bihar, Tamil Nadu and West Bengal. The commission says names were deleted only where voters had died, moved, were duplicated or could not be traced.