NEW DELHI: The Supreme Court has sought an explanation from Shiv Sena(UBT) leader Sanjay Raut over his conduct while provisionally entertaining his petition as part of a plea filed by Leader of Opposition in the Lok Sabha Rahul Gandhi and other INDIA bloc leaders challenging the Election Commission of India's (ECI) Special Intensive Revision (SIR) of electoral rolls.
A Bench of Chief Justice of India (CJI) Surya Kant and Justice Joymalya Bagchi directed that Raut explain his conduct, making it clear that the petition on his behalf would be entertained on a provisional basis, subject to his explanation.
“In W.P. (C) No. 1351/2026, the petition on behalf of Petitioner No. 6 (Sanjay Raut) is entertained on a provisional basis, subject to his explaining his conduct,” the CJI Kant-led Bench said in its order.
The development comes amid controversy over remarks made by Raut concerning Chief Justice of India Surya Kant following the CJI's refusal to meet Rahul Gandhi and Mallikarjun Kharge to receive a memorandum on the SIR exercise.
The CJI had said that convening a meeting to discuss pending cases would be contrary to the constitutional principle of separation of powers, an intrinsic facet of the basic structure doctrine.
During a media interaction on October 12, the Shiv Sena(UBT) Rajya Sabha member had claimed that he had seen 60 to 70 judges, including the CJI, playing badminton with BJP leaders in London.
The Supreme Court Bar Association (SCBA) has filed a criminal contempt petition against Raut and journalist Nikhil Wagle over their alleged remarks against the CJI.
Raut is among the 13 opposition leaders who approached the Supreme Court on October 12, challenging the SIR exercise and alleging large-scale voter deletions and irregularities in the revision of electoral rolls.
On Wednesday, the apex court issued notice on the opposition leaders' plea, returnable on October 27, directed that the reply, if any, be filed by the next date of hearing, and ordered that the matter be tagged with the pending batch of petitions.
The CJI Kant-led Bench had also indicated that it would examine the conduct of one of the petitioners at the next hearing, without identifying the person at that stage.
The petition names the ECI, Chief Election Commissioner Gyanesh Kumar and Election Commissioners Sukhbir Singh Sandhu and Vivek Joshi as respondents. Other petitioners include Rahul Gandhi, Congress president Mallikarjun Kharge, Trinamool Congress leader Saugata Roy, Samajwadi Party chief Akhilesh Yadav, and RJD leader Tejashwi Prasad Yadav, among others.