The Congress on Sunday called for a march to the Supreme Court on Monday afternoon to meet Chief Justice of India (CJI) Surya Kant and submit a memorandum, amid protests demanding the resignation of Chief Election Commissioner (CEC) Gyanesh Kumar. The CJI, however, declined the request for a meeting. In his reply to the Opposition party, the CJI raised four points: the grievances, including the Special Intensive Revision (SIR) of electoral rolls and those related to the CEC, were pending before the court; in the Constitutional scheme, the court does not have the powers to take cognisance of such grievances on the administrative side; the court has the power of judicial review under Article 32, and any petition filed on Monday would be taken up for hearing the following day; and the court’s commitment to protecting the fundamental rights of citizens, whose doors were always open.

Rahul Gandhi’s ‘Chalo Dilli’ call

Hours earlier, Leader of Opposition Rahul Gandhi issued a Chalo Dilli call, urging students, civil society organisations and Opposition parties to join a march to the Supreme Court, where an Opposition delegation was supposed to meet the CJI. The march was scheduled to begin at 1.30 pm from the Connaught Place-Barakhamba Road junction and end at the Supreme Court, around 2 km away. In a video message, Gandhi said they would submit a memorandum on behalf of the nation, demanding an end to vote chori, the halting of the SIR and the resignation of Gyanesh Kumar.

Gandhi said the nation’s youth had come out in Delhi to protest peacefully and were beaten by the police. After two days of police crackdown to stop the Cockroach Janta Party (CJP) and Left student groups from gathering at Jantar Mantar, the Opposition was expected to mobilise Congress, Samajwadi Party, RJD and Left workers from neighbouring states to make the march larger than its protests of the past week.

The wider confrontation

Congress president Mallikarjun Kharge said the Opposition only wanted to place its concerns before the CJI and request his intervention, accusing Prime Minister Narendra Modi and Home Minister Amit Shah of creating chaos across the country and saying an undeclared Emergency was prevailing. TMC MP Derek O’Brien said the crackdown on protesters and the detention of journalists covering the protests were a cause for concern. On October 9, INDIA bloc MPs had met President Droupadi Murmu to raise their concerns about the SIR and the Election Commission.