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Gandhi's August 7 press conference, in which he claimed to have manipulated the electoral lists of the Mahadevapura assembly constituency, is cited in the appeal.
The Supreme Court has received a public interest litigation petition asking for a special investigation team (SIT) to look into claims made by opposition leader Rahul Gandhi of widespread electoral roll manipulation in Bengaluru Central and other constituencies.
In order to guarantee accountability, transparency, and integrity in the creation, upkeep, and publication of electoral rolls—including procedures for identifying and preventing duplicate or fraudulent entries—the plea has also asked the Election Commission of India to establish and publish legally binding guidelines.
Importantly, in order to facilitate meaningful verification, audit, and public scrutiny, the petition has also asked the ECI to provide electoral rolls in easily legible, machine-readable, and OCR-compliant forms.
Advocate Rohit Pandey, a lawyer, filed the case, citing Gandhi's August 7 press conference in which he claimed that the electoral lists of Bengaluru's Mahadevapura assembly constituency had been manipulated.
"Upon coming across credible revelations, including a press conference dated 07.08.2025 by the Leader of the Opposition in the Lok Sabha, Mr. Rahul Gandhi, alleging large-scale manipulation of genuine voters' names, and inclusion of fictitious entries in the electoral rolls of the Mahadevapura Assembly Constituency (falling within the Bengaluru Central Parliamentary Constituency), the Petitioner became gravely concerned, as such actions, if true, strike at the core of the" one person, one vote "principle enshrined under Articles 325 and 326 of the Constitution," the petition stated.
The petitioner claims that after independently confirming the veracity of these reports using publicly accessible government data, there is enough preliminary evidence to prove that the accusations show a systematic attempt to dilute and skew the value of legitimate votes, calling for the Supreme Court to step in immediately.
The petition has said, "The allegations of dilution of the purity of electoral rolls directly undermines the constitutional vision of free and fair elections in the eyes of the community at large," and has asked the SIT, which is led by a former judge, to conduct a court-monitored investigation.
Examples of purported irregularities are cited in the PIL, such as "roughly 80 voters registered at one and the same address" in Chandrapur, Maharashtra, and "approximately 40,000–50,000 voters recorded with identical addresses and father's names" in Karnataka.
"What is at stake here is not the outcome of a single electoral contest, but the integrity and credibility of the electoral roll itself, the bedrock upon which the entire democratic process stands," the plea argues, arguing that the problem goes right to the core of the democratic process.
Directions to stop further roll finalization until an independent audit is completed and legally binding standards to guarantee "transparency, accountability, and integrity in the preparation, maintenance, and publication of electoral rolls" are among the reliefs requested.
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