LOP Rahul Gandhi holds a press conference with victims of police brutality and detainment from the recent Anti Gyanesh Kumar protest at 10 Janpath in New Delhi. (Express Photo by Tashi Tobgyal)The Supreme Court on Thursday is set to hear Rahul Gandhi v Election Commission of India, the lead writ petition filed by India Bloc leaders, challenging the alleged “unilateral and arbitrary exercise of the collective powers” of the poll agency in conducting the Special Intensive Revision (SIR) of electoral rolls.A bench headed by Chief Justice of India Surya Kant, Justices Joymalya Bagchi and V Mohana will hear the plea along with the other batch of petitions relating to the protests against CEC Gyanesh Kumar.The petition alleges that the CEC exercised the Commission’s collective powers without the knowledge, approval or concurrence of the other Election Commissioners. It also points to the absence of a recorded decision of the Commission authorising the nationwide SIR, and alleges that the statutory Form 6 was modified without amending the applicable Rules.The petitioners further raise concerns over what they describe as the “centralised and opaque functioning” of the ECINET and ERONET electoral-roll databases. They allege large-scale exclusion of electors without adequate notice, hearing, or an effective mechanism for restoration.The petition asks the court to constitute an independent committee headed by a retired Supreme Court judge, assisted by technical experts and other citizens of eminence, to conduct within a fixed time an independent audit of the deletions and modifications made during the SIR.The petitioners further seek a direction to the EC to publish, booth-wise, the names of all electors deleted during the exercise, along with reasons for each deletion and a breakdown by gender and age. Additionally, they have sought an interim direction suspending the ongoing SIR across the States, pending adjudication of the issues raised in the petition.