SC seeks responses from Rahul Gandhi, INDIA bloc leaders on plea against Opposition march

The Supreme Court on Thursday issued notice to the Congress, its leader Rahul Gandhi and other INDIA bloc leaders seeking their responses to a petition filed in connection with the Opposition’s march to the apex court, Bar and Bench reported.

The petition, filed by four lawyers, sought regulations for processions and protests in the vicinity of the Supreme Court.

A bench headed by Chief Justice Surya Kant was hearing the matter when the lawyers appearing for the petitioners told the court that advocates practising in the Supreme Court had expressed “anguish” over the procession. The lawyers had signed a memorandum stating that such conduct amounted to “browbeating of the judiciary”, the legal news outlet reported.

“Nobody can browbeat the judiciary,” Kant said.

“We are not sitting in ivory towers,” Bar and Bench quoted him as saying. “We know what statements they are making outside and what they are saying in court. We know everything.”

On Monday, Gandhi, Congress President Mallikarjun Kharge and several Opposition leaders led a march towards the Supreme Court to file a petition challenging the Election Commission’s special intensive revision of electoral rolls. The petition also sought an independent audit of voter deletions, disclosure of the poll panel’s internal records and an interim suspension of the exercise.

The march came after the leaders’ request for a meeting with the...

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