NEW DELHI: A Public Interest Litigation (PIL) has been filed in the Supreme Court by advocate and Congress member Rohit Pandey, seeking the constitution of a Special Investigation Team (SIT) headed by a former judge to probe the alleged large-scale manipulation of electoral rolls in Mahadevapura Assembly constituency in Bengaluru Central and other constituencies during the 2024 Lok Sabha elections.Speaking to TNIE, Pandey said his petition, which he described as “very sensitive” and concerning “voters, fake voters,” could come up for hearing in the apex court within a week. He moved the court citing allegations made by Leader of Opposition in the Lok Sabha and Congress leader Rahul Gandhi at a press conference on August 7.In his petition, a copy of which was accessed by TNIE, Pandey also sought directions that no further revision or finalisation of electoral rolls be undertaken until the Court’s orders are complied with and an independent audit of the rolls is completed.”Frame and issue binding guidelines to the Election Commission of India 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,” Pandey stated in his petition.He further requested that the Supreme Court direct the Election Commission of India (ECI) to publish electoral rolls in accessible, machine-readable and OCR-compliant formats to enable meaningful verification, audit and public scrutiny.”What is at stake here is not the outcome of a single electoral contest, but the integrity and credibility of the electoral roll itself, the bedrock upon which the entire democratic process stands. When the electoral roll is corrupted by wrongful deletions and fraudulent insertions, the right to vote ceases to be equally accessible to all citizens, undermining the constitutional promise of universal adult suffrage,” Pandey argued.The petition noted that the PIL was prompted by “serious allegations of electoral roll manipulation” in Mahadevapura, which is part of the Bengaluru Central Lok Sabha constituency in Karnataka.The allegations made by Gandhi relate to the deletion of thousands of legitimate voters’ names and the inclusion of fictitious or duplicate entries, allegedly with the involvement of political operatives and local officials.”The material disclosed in the press conference includes extracts from the electoral roll, showing identical names in multiple polling parts; and entries linked to non-existent or commercial addresses and other forms of manipulation. Independent citizen verification reportedly confirmed the bogus and duplicate entries,” the plea said.Pointing to what it called severe lacunae in the functioning of the ECI, the plea contended that such large-scale tampering, if proven, would undermine the constitutional mandate of “one person, one vote” under Articles 325 and 326, dilute the value of lawful votes, and violate the principles of equality and due process.
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