The morning of Monday, a convoy of 1,200 opposition activists streamed past the statue of Swami Vivekananda, converging at Connaught Place before heading toward the Supreme Court building in New Delhi. The march was led by Congress veteran Rahul Gandhi, who called on the Election Commission to resign for alleged tampering with the Special Intensive Revision of electoral rolls.
The joint petition, signed by prominent figures such as Mallikarjun Kharge, Priyanka Gandhi Vadra, Akhilesh Yadav, Mamata Banerjee, Tejashwi Yadav, Supriya Sule, Sanjay Raut, D Raja and M A Baby, challenges the integrity of Form 6 changes and seeks a full audit of the rolls. In the filing, the opposition accuses the Election Commission of collaborating with government officials to exclude voters.
In a hearing that morning, the Supreme Court clarified that it had not approved or rejected the Form 6 modifications. "We never said we approved it or not approved it. We said we will examine it," the bench said, issuing a notice to the Election Commission and setting a tentative hearing date of October 29. The court also took on other pending petitions related to the SIR exercise.
Meanwhile, Delhi Police announced that Jantar Mantar had been stripped of its designation as a protest site. Commissioner Anurag Kumar named Ramlila Ground, Burari Ground and CBD Ground in East Delhi as the new venues for demonstrations. The move follows a committee report from the Ministry of Home Affairs and arrives amid a heightened security presence that includes an additional 20,000 paramilitary personnel deployed for a month.
Rahul Gandhi, addressing a press conference before the march, urged the Election Commissioner to resign and become an approver, accusing him of orchestrating electoral manipulation. CJI Surya Kant, speaking at the National Human Rights Commission event, dismissed the protests as a law‑and‑order issue outside his purview, though he reaffirmed the Court’s accessibility to all citizens, including elected representatives.