India's Supreme Court to Hear Rahul Gandhi Challenge Over Mass Voter Deletions

India's top court is set to hear a petition brought by Rahul Gandhi and other opposition legislators challenging the government's Special Intensive Revision of voter lists, a process that has eliminated over 130 million entries and is accused of favoring the ruling party. The petition, filed after a large protest outside the Supreme Court, asks for an interim suspension of the revision, a thorough audit and procedural safeguards.

The case will be heard by a bench led by Chief Justice Surya Kanta. In parallel, Foreign Minister Subrahmanyam Jaishankar is on a three-day visit to the United Arab Emirates, where he met Deputy Prime Minister and Foreign Minister Abdullah bin Zayed Al Nahyan, describing the talks as warm and productive and emphasizing the need for "minilateral" reforms of multilateral institutions. Jaishankar also engaged with Georgian Foreign Minister Maka Botchorishvili and participated in the Raisina Middle East forum co-hosted by one outlet Research Foundation. Separately, German authorities are investigating a fatal fire in a Bochum apartment building that killed three Indian citizens; a resident has been arrested on suspicion of murder as arson is suspected.