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CJI Surya Kant responds to Rahul Gandhi and Mallikarjun Kharge’s request for a meeting on issues concerning the Election Commission, student arrests, metro station closures and train cancellations, stating that the issues are already pending before the Supreme Court.
The Joint Commissioner of Delhi Police has declared closure of 57 Metro stations in a letter sent to the Delhi Metro Rail Corporation.
While opining that the challenge to the EC Act, 2023 does not merit reference to larger Bench, Justice Datta also remarked on the nuances and challenges of the Collegium System to appoint High Court and Supreme Court Judges.
Opining that the petitions raise substantial questions of law related to the vires of Sections 7, 6 and 8, Election Commissioners Act, 2023, Justice S.C. Sharma also remarked that arguments on parallels between the Collegium system and appointment of Election Commissioners were neither a criticism of the Collegium system nor initiating any debate regarding the manner in which the system of selection has worked.
Pitching for a permanent 5-judge bench, the Court reasoned that resolving constitutional issues is the primary task of Judges of the Supreme Court, that must remain its core priority. Pendency of references for far too long does not reflect well on the institution.
The Court noted that the Draft Electoral Roll itself demonstrated inclusion of homeless persons and that persons affected by demolition could seek enrolment through Form 6.
INC candidate Meenakshi Natarajan’s Rajya Sabha nomination from Madhya Pradesh was rejected for non-disclosure of a pending criminal case in her Form 26 affidavit. The Supreme Court declined to examine the merits, holding that the constitutional bar under Article 329(b) admits no exception for cases involving manifest illegality.
The Court examined the scope of Section 29-A, Representation of the People Act, 1951 and reaffirmed the limited circumstances in which deregistration is legally permissible.
The Court held that ECI is empowered, in the exercise of its constitutional mandate, to undertake a limited enquiry into citizenship for the purpose of satisfying itself as to eligibility for inclusion in the electoral roll.
The Court on 20 February 2026, had requested the Chief Justice of Calcutta High Court to spare some serving judicial officers, along with some former judicial officers in the rank of District Judges/Additional District Judges, to revisit and dispose of the pending claims under the category of “logical discrepancy/unmapped category”.
“It appears that approximately 1.40 crore individuals have been issued notices for the purpose of document verification.”
The petitioners contended that its members had contested in the last election to the local bodies, indicating that the petitioners are active within the State.
“The Supreme Court had, by an interim order dated 11-11-2025, requested the jurisdictional High Courts to keep in abeyance the writ proceedings filed with them touching the validity of the SIR of electoral rolls in their respective States.”
The petition sought further direction for the Centre to take steps to reduce the menace of Corruption, Casteism, Linguism, Regionalism, Communalism & Criminalization in politics.
Supreme Court allowed Aadhaar as the 12th identity document for SIR Bihar, clarifying it can prove identity but not citizenship.
“Prima facie, the ECI appears to be the statutory body which should put the verification report as received from the CBDT in the public domain, especially as the correspondence has taken place between the two authorities in this regard.”
In continuation of the various measures undertaken by the ECI for the convenience of voters, new Standard Operating Procedures have been introduced to ensure real-time tracking and faster delivery of Electoral Cards to voters.
ECI introduced the Index Card to promote accessibility of data at the constituency level for all stakeholders and disseminate across multiple dimensions to avoid delays in data availability and dissemination.
The new system aims to link ECINET and VTR apps to ensure faster updation of voter turnout percentage trends
by Spenta Havewala Kapadia*