Fourteen procedural shortcomings were flagged by the Supreme Court registry against a petition brought by Rahul Gandhi alongside ten other INDIA bloc representatives, challenging what the signatories described as irregularities in the Special Intensive Revision process for electoral rolls. Advancement to a hearing date depends on those outstanding deficiencies being addressed first.

Raised on procedural grounds, the challenges point to absent documentation or errors made during the filing process. No statement addressing the concerns raised by the Opposition leaders, nor any position on the lawfulness of the SIR exercise, has been put forward by the registry.

A court fee discrepancy of Rs 220 has been flagged by the registry. A legible copy of the identity card belonging to Congress president Mallikarjun Kharge has also been requested. Vakalatnamas for petitioners three through eleven have come back either unsigned or absent from the record altogether. Among those named were Saugata Roy, Akhilesh Yadav, Tejashwi Prasad Yadav, Sanjay Raut, MA Baby, D Raja, Mahua Majhi, Supriya Sule, and ET Mohammed Basheer.

Signing a vakalatnama is the formal step by which a petitioner grants a lawyer the legal standing to act on their behalf before the court.

Alongside those concerns, the registry put in a formal request for higher-quality versions of supporting materials — among them digital files tied to the Election Commission's 24 June 2025 ruling that set the SIR in motion, as well as documentation bearing on voter removals. A clarification was also sought regarding why individual Election Commissioners had been listed by name as private respondents within the petition.

Rahul Gandhi, who holds the position of Leader of the Opposition in the Lok Sabha, joined ten other leaders in submitting the petition. Named as respondents in the matter are the Election Commission of India alongside its three officeholders — Chief Election Commissioner Gyanesh Kumar and fellow commissioners Sukhbir Singh Sandhu and Vivek Joshi.

Those filing the petition are calling for an oversight body — led by a retired judge of the Supreme Court — to examine alterations and removals applied to voter rolls over a defined timeframe. A request for a temporary halt to the SIR exercise, pending judicial review of the matter, has also been filed.

The filing calls for protections guaranteeing that any voter facing removal from the rolls receives advance notification along with a genuine chance to contest that decision. The petition additionally requests that voters who meet eligibility requirements in Punjab and other states heading toward elections be allowed to submit registration applications up to the legally prescribed cutoff date.

Among the data requested by the petitioners are polling-booth-level records of voters struck from the rolls, the grounds on which each removal was made, and a breakdown of those affected by both gender and age. A mechanism to reinstate voters who were incorrectly removed from registration lists formed part of the request as well.

Among the materials sought through the petition are Election Commission files, meeting agendas, minutes, internal notes, and access logs drawn from the ECINET and ERONET systems, all tied to the decision on the SIR. Accountability measures are also built into the process, with those found to have committed violations facing potential disciplinary proceedings.

The filing cites Punjab as one illustration of why the matter warrants attention. According to that document, the provisional voter list released on 13 August 2026 recorded approximately 20.66 lakh fewer registered electors than the roughly 2.14 crore who had appeared on the rolls as of June that year.

Those filing the petition contend that the disputed procedural lapses put both the fairness of the vote and the ability of qualified residents to enrol and cast ballots at risk.

When Gandhi and Kharge's request for a Sunday meeting with Chief Justice of India Surya Kant did not result in an appointment, the two leaders turned to the courts, filing a formal legal petition. The document the leaders sought to place before the assembly covered four areas of concern: the conduct of the Chief Election Commissioner, students held in detention, Metro station closures, and disruptions affecting rail services.