Morning Pulse: The Supreme Court makes the poll panel answer, and the street gets its turn at 5 pm

The voter-roll fight got half of what it went to court for. On Thursday the Supreme Court issued notice to the Election Commission and Chief Election Commissioner Gyanesh Kumar, so the Commission must now defend the Special Intensive Revision (SIR) in writing. It did not stop the exercise, and it had pointed words for the petitioners too. Today the argument goes back outdoors: the Cockroach Janta Party (CJP) has called a "Lehra Do Tiranga" gathering at Connaught Place at 5 pm, and Delhi has spent the night getting ready for it. The thread is the one we followed yesterday: who may protest, and who may question the referee.

Since yesterday's Morning Pulse, the bench of Chief Justice Surya Kant and Justice Joymalya Bagchi has tagged the INDIA bloc's petitions with the SIR challenges already pending from several states, The Week and Onmanorama reported. The petitioners include Rahul Gandhi, Mallikarjun Kharge, Akhilesh Yadav, Tejashwi Yadav, Sanjay Raut and Supriya Sule. Neither report mentions interim relief or a fresh hearing date. The Chief Justice said a notice was not a finding against anyone. The demand for the Commission's internal files, including objections reportedly recorded by Election Commissioners Sukhbir Singh Sandhu and Vivek Joshi, now travels with the main case.

The sharpest words were for one petitioner. The court said it would accept notice for him only provisionally, until he explained his conduct over the crowd at the court premises after Monday's march. The Week identified him as Rahul Gandhi and reported the Chief Justice saying nobody can browbeat the judiciary; Onmanorama did not name him. On the protest pleas, the bench issued notice to the Centre and Delhi Police over removing Jantar Mantar from the list of protest sites. Solicitor General Tushar Mehta told the court the decision rested on a committee report and was not arbitrary, The Week reported.

The Ankita Bhandari row reached Rashtrapati Bhavan. Rahul Gandhi wrote to President Droupadi Murmu on Thursday asking her to have the government reconsider Dushyant Kumar Gautam's appointment as Governor of Sikkim, and to keep him from taking office until the CBI finishes its probe into the 2022 murder, ANI and ETV Bharat reported. His case rests on immunity: a sitting governor cannot face criminal proceedings, so the post would, he argued, put Gautam out of reach. He invoked Article 74(1) and accused the Prime Minister of showing no concern for women's safety.

The parents' 24-hour ultimatum, issued after police removed them from India Gate before dawn on Thursday, runs out about now. Ankita's father told ANI that if it went unanswered, the people of Uttarakhand would come out onto the streets. The family also wants call and location records for Gautam and another man for 18-19 September 2022 made public. Neither ANI nor ETV Bharat carried a response from the BJP, the government or Gautam, and we found none overnight. As we reported yesterday, Gautam denies any involvement and has gone to court for defamation; no court has linked him to the case.

Now Connaught Place. The Delhi High Court on Thursday declined a Palika Bazaar vendor's plea to stop the CJP gathering, recording the police's assurance that they would take all possible measures to manage it, Outlook reported; the matter returns on 3 November. The New Delhi Municipal Council has shut Central Park on Friday and Saturday, citing administrative reasons, and traffic police have warned of disruption around CP from 3 pm, The Statesman reported. Police cited prohibitory orders under Section 163 of the BNSS but signalled that a limited group might carry the flag and sing the anthem at another spot. The AAP has backed the call.

That loop from yesterday stays open: CJP co-convenors Saurav Das and Ashutosh Ranka remain in judicial custody in Tihar after their arrest over entering Jantar Mantar, Outlook and The Statesman reported. Police cite trespass, breach of prohibitory orders and of peace bonds. We found no report of a bail hearing yet.

Markets had their best day in four months on Thursday. The Sensex rose 1,533.72 points (2.11%) to 74,315.61 and the Nifty 374.65 points to 22,997.35 as Brent fell more than 2% during the day, Kotak Neo reported. HDFC Sky noted that falling shares still outnumbered rising ones and that Brent was near $105.5 early on Friday, still above $100; GIFT Nifty pointed to a muted-to-firm start. Wipro's September-quarter profit slipped 1.4% to Rs 3,200.6 crore while revenue rose 9.1%, but large-deal bookings fell 58.6% from the previous quarter and its guidance ranges from a 1.5% fall to 0.5% growth, Business Standard and Business Today reported. PNB, LTIMindtree, Federal Bank and DLF report today.