Arabic version: المحكمة العليا الهندية تطلب إجابات بشأن حذف أسماء من قوائم الناخبين

According to The Guardian, India’s supreme court has issued notices to Narendra Modi’s government, the Election Commission of India and its head, Gyanesh Kumar, seeking answers over a voter-roll revision that has removed 130 million names. The court said it expected all parties “to respond in a clear, transparent manner” after petitions questioned the conduct and credibility of the process.

The special intensive revision, or SIR, began last year and is intended, according to the Election Commission, to remove duplicate, dead and ineligible names from electoral rolls, as well as “illegal infiltrators”. But people in Delhi and states including Bihar and West Bengal have said they were wrongly stripped of their voting rights and have struggled to have them restored.

Opposition parties, student groups and the youth-led Cockroach movement have protested across the country, calling for Kumar’s resignation. The opposition alliance led by the Congress party has accused the commission of working with the government over alleged vote “chori”, or cheating. Kumar was selected to lead the commission by a panel headed by Modi.

Two petitions heard by the court called for an independent inquiry into Kumar’s decisions in conducting the revision. Menaka Guruswamy, a lawyer for one petitioner, said: “Deletions of voters have been made in the largest democracy. We have grown up with free and fair elections, that is not the case now.” A further hearing is due next week.

Hundreds of people were detained in Delhi over the weekend while trying to protest. Police have also faced criticism over their response to student demonstrations in the capital, including allegations that officers sexually assaulted three journalists. Delhi police said it was investigating the assault claims. Thousands of Cockroach Janta party supporters protested in Mumbai last Friday, followed by a demonstration in Delhi on Saturday.