More than 2,000 citizens ask India’s top court to halt electoral roll revision

More than 2,000 citizens have signed an open letter asking India’s Chief Justice, Surya Kant, to initiate proceedings over the Election Commission’s Special Intensive Revision exercise and the deployment of its ECINet platform. The letter seeks an immediate stay and rescission of the revision exercise across all states and Union territories until an independent judicial review examines its legality and procedural integrity. The signatories also ask for an investigation into allegations that voter-registration software and forms were changed without authorisation.

They have called for a court-monitored inquiry and for appropriate action against Chief Election Commissioner Gyanesh Kumar and other officials. The letter alleges that statutory procedures were overridden and that the constitutional role of the multi-member Election Commission was disregarded. The signatories also want an independent security and legal audit of ECINet.

They have asked the Supreme Court to appoint an expert committee to examine whether the platform complied with the law, whether control was properly decentralised to Electoral Registration Officers and whether anyone other than authorised officers had access. Another request is the immediate reinstatement of voters whose names were allegedly deleted because of technical glitches, software locks or unauthorised procedural changes. The signatories include academics, former public officials, lawyers, journalists, writers, artists and human-rights activists.

Those named in the report include advocate Prashant Bhushan, retired Admiral Vishnu Bhagwat, filmmaker Aditya Seth, former Delhi University professor Anita Rampal and actor Prakash Raj. The letter says free and fair elections are central to India’s constitutional democracy and argues that judicial intervention is necessary to protect public confidence when electoral safeguards are alleged to have been compromised.