The battle over the Special Intensive Revision (SIR) of electoral rolls has moved from Election Commission files to the streets of Delhi, with Jantar Mantar heavily barricaded on Friday as activists, students and political leaders sought to protest against Chief Election Commissioner Gyanesh Kumar.The development assumes significance because the latest agitation comes days after an investigation reported that Election Commissioners Sukhbir Singh Sandhu and Vivek Joshi had formally raised objections on several occasions over voter registration, deletion and restoration of names and the functioning of the poll panel’s electoral-roll technology. The ECI has rejected the suggestion of a breakdown, saying differing views are part of institutional deliberations and that decisions were taken unanimously.On Friday, the police action effectively turned the designated protest zone into a security cordon. NSUI workers protesting on the road towards the Election Commission office were removed by the police, while Left leaders and other protesters were stopped behind barricades.CPI(ML) general secretary Dipankar Bhattacharya, activist Yogendra Yadav and other protesters were reportedly detained. AISA national president Neha was also among those detained from Jantar Mantar, as told by protesters to The Tribune.The immediate trigger is the demand for Kumar’s resignation, but the confrontation goes beyond one office-holder.The reported objections inside the three-member Commission have put the spotlight on a fundamental question of who ultimately controls decisions affecting a citizen’s entry into, removal from or restoration on the electoral roll. Concerns have been raised over the centralised control of electoral-roll data and instances where officials’ decisions could not be recorded through the software.That makes the Delhi Police response politically significant as well as operationally sensitive. The street protest is now testing the space available for citizens, civil-society groups and political organisations to challenge an electoral process whose legality and internal decision-making are themselves under public scrutiny.The controversy intensified after the CJP demanded Kumar’s resignation within 48 hours and threatened a nationwide agitation and a fresh Jantar Mantar mobilisation if he did not step down.Friday’s barricading therefore marks a new phase of the SIR controversy, from objections recorded inside the constitutional poll body to confrontation outside it.Whether the allegations against the CEC withstand legal and institutional scrutiny remains a matter for the competent authorities. But the immediate public-interest question is clearer: When voter-list decisions become the subject of a constitutional dispute, how much room remains for citizens to publicly challenge them without the protest itself becoming a law-and-order issue.